MIPAAF, Bellanova presses Hogan again to ward off the agri-food sector
“Mission to Washington avoid impending risks. Absolutely urgent European fund to support affected sectors and mitigate the damage "
Not a minute to lose and strong European action.
Use all the weapons of political diplomacy during the mission of European Commissioner Hogan in Washington, which will begin next Tuesday, to prevent the penalization of European agriculture and agri-food. Immediately set up an ad hoc Fund, without absolutely affecting the CAP resources, to face this and other commercial crises and above all, immediately, to support Italian and European agri-food companies hit unjustifiably by tariffs.
Last but not least: maintaining the unity of European action and the cohesion between the member states that the US administration's strategy is at the expense of tariffs trying to undermine.
It is, in a nutshell, the content of the letter sent yesterday to European Commissioner Phil Hogan by the Minister for Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies Teresa Bellanova.
He said: “After the first letter of October, and the numerous institutional meetings in Brussels, I felt it urgent to urge Commissioner Hogan once again in view of his imminent mission to Washington. Every negotiating effort must be put in place to avoid the penalization that risks hitting further immediately, and with a weight that is announced to be infinitely greater than the previous one, European agriculture and agri-food. It is unacceptable for farmers and businesses to pay duties as high as one hundred per cent of the value as those foreseen in the ongoing review of the measures. It would be a debacle, which we must absolutely avoid. And it is absolutely necessary to set up a European fund to support businesses. Taking resources from the European budget and not from agricultural funds, because otherwise agriculture would pay twice. We must act with absolute urgency and follow concrete actions with verbal commitments and assurances repeatedly stressed. Our companies have already paid for the Russian embargo and don't know what to expect from Brexit. And we can't move until after the disaster has happened. We have to do it first and we have to do it right away. ”
For this, writes Minister Teresa Bellanova in Hogan, it is necessary "to maintain the unity of action of the European Union and cohesion between Member States. Cohesion which instead risks failing, where the new measures disproportionately affect some categories of European agri-food products: in our case, after having seriously damaged the dairy, the expansion hypothesized in the list would end up affecting our strategic supply chains such as vines, wine, processed meats, olive oil and citrus fruits. The impact would not be sustainable for our companies that have invested heavily in recent years and that, without adequate compensatory measures, would effectively remain excluded from the American market ".
Here then is the second priority, which cannot be postponed in the face of the prospect: the establishment at European level of an adequate intervention tool "capable of dealing with commercial crises like this, without affecting the CAP resources".