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EU tariff-rate quota for US beef extended

08 September 2013

On 1 August 2013, the EU extended an agreement “to import high-quality US beef from non-hormone-treated cattle at zero duty” for a further 2 years. This will allow the annual duty-free importation of 45,000 tonnes of beef, and extends the 2009 agreement concluded in partial resolution of the EU’s “ban on beef from cattle treated with certain growth-promoting hormones”.

In the last year of application of the current agreement, “American beef shipments under the quota were valued at about €151 million, up 300% from the year before the agreement came into force.” The extension of the duty-free quota arrangement needs to be seen in the context of the launch of the negotiations on an EU–US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (see Agritrade article ‘ Discussions on standards in EU–US trade negotiations carry global implic...’, 4 May 2013).

In July 2013, a spokesperson from the Irish Food Board’s Strategic Information Services, speaking about the latest long-term outlook report from Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, noted that total Brazilian beef production was forecast to “increase by 22.5 per cent in the next 10 years to reach 10.9 million tonnes by 2022, while its exports are forecast to increase by 29 per cent over the same period to 1.88 million tonnes”. In the first half of 2013, “beef shipments from Brazil rose by 22 per cent to 679,000 tonnes compared to a year earlier, while export values were 14.6 per cent higher than the previous year.” The largest growth in exports in January to June 2013 was reported in non-EU markets (Hong Kong, Algeria and Iran).

Also in July, the EU Council discussed new proposals for the labelling of meat from animals not stunned before slaughtering. The Dutch delegation considered it important that such meat be labelled to enable consumers to make informed choices, while “other delegations noted that it was not yet clear to what extent EU consumers were interested in receiving such information.” The EC is proposing to incorporate an assessment of consumer interest in this issue and its economic consequences in an ongoing study, as part of the EU’s 2012–2015 animal welfare strategy. At present, the slaughter of animals without stunning is only allowed on religious grounds. 

Editorial comment

The extension of the EU tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for US beef from non-hormone-treated cattle is indicative of the type of market access changes likely as negotiations towards the EU–US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement get under way. The current measure is likely to increase competition on certain quality-differentiated markets served by Namibian beef exporters, particularly if the overall size of the US TRQ is expanded as part of a broader trade and investment deal. This heightens the importance of region-specific brand marketing (e.g. the marketing of Namibian beef as part of the wider promotional programmes for African products undertaken by the Coop in Denmark, through its Savannah brand).

In addition, the broader process of EU–US trade negotiations is likely to see the establishment of dialogue structures on a range of other market requirements, given the sensitivity of US exporters to the EU’s use of non-tariff measures as obstacles to trade and the development of product requirements as a means of differentiating EU products from imported products.

These EU–US dialogue structures could potentially carry implications for the future evolution of the EU’s agricultural product quality policy, and hence quality-related requirements facing ACP exporters. A careful monitoring of the evolution of EU–US discussions in this area would appear to be required.

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