\u201cEuropean arable farmers are currently facing not just low producer prices, but also rising production costs. The main cost drivers are fertilizer prices, which have increased markedly since 2020,\u201d Johannes Frankhauser, a senior official in Austria\u2019s agriculture ministry, told ministers gathered in Brussels.\u00a0Eleven countries backed Vienna in Monday’s meeting. <\/p>\n
Yet critics \u2014 which include fertilizer producers, environment-focused MEPs and several governments \u2014\u00a0warn that such an exemption would not only penalize the EU\u2019s domestic producers but threaten the integrity of the carbon tariff scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cHigh prices of production inputs, including fertilizers, have a direct impact on the economic situation of farms\u2026 However, we want an optimal solution in order to maintain food security on one hand and on the other [avoid] possible negative impacts on the competitiveness of EU fertilizer producers,\u201d said Polish Agriculture Minister Stefan Krajewski, whose country is a major fertilizer producer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Germany, Belgium, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands expressed similar sentiments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CBAM was phased in over several years and is supposed to protect European producers of heavily polluting goods \u2014\u00a0cement, iron, steel, aluminum, fertilizers, electricity and hydrogen \u2014\u00a0from cheap and dirty foreign competition. EU manufacturers of these products currently pay a carbon price on their planet-warming emissions, while importers didn’t before the CBAM came into force.<\/p>\n