{"id":23984,"date":"2025-04-16T05:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T05:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/23984\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T05:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T05:54:10","slug":"eu-dismisses-us-demands-on-food-standards-and-ties-to-china-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/23984\/","title":{"rendered":"EU dismisses US demands on food standards and ties to China \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Union<\/a> will not agree to sweeping changes to its food safety rules to suit American farmers and nor will the bloc agree to cut ties with China<\/a> as the United States<\/a> wants it to do, according to senior sources in Dublin and Brussels. <\/p>\n

This suggests that agreement between the EU and US on trade, following the imposition of tariffs by Donald Trump<\/a>, will be hard to reach.<\/p>\n

The European Commission<\/a>, which is the EU\u2019s executive arm that sets trade policy, publicly repeated that the union\u2019s high food safety standards are not on the table in any negotiations with the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cEU standards, particularly as they relate to food health and safety, are sacrosanct. That\u2019s not part of the negotiation, it never will be, not with the US or anyone else,\u201d a commission spokesman said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

EU regulations of tech and social media companies, which US multinationals have criticised as overbearing, were also \u201cnot up for negotiation,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Fintan O’Toole: There\u2019s a psychosexual dimension to Trump\u2019s tariffsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ambassadors from the EU\u2019s 27 states were briefed on the latest round of talks, between European trade commissioner Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d<\/a> and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick<\/a>, that took place in Washington, DC, on Monday.<\/p>\n

The briefing outlined the EU side felt there was a need for the US to define its position and what it wanted.<\/p>\n

The meeting in Washington, DC, which lasted a couple of hours, saw the EU delegation stress the complex nature of the pharmaceutical sector\u2019s supply chain across the Atlantic, which tariffs<\/a> could disrupt.<\/p>\n

After Monday\u2019s meeting between Mr Lutnick and Mr \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, Brussels issued a cautious assessment stressing that both sides must \u201cbring something to the table\u201d.<\/p>\n

An Irish assessment of the US position after T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a>\u2019s meeting with Mr Lutnick last week said that the US wanted the EU to scrap restrictions on American agricultural produce and cut close trading ties with China<\/a> if it wanted to secure a new trade deal with the US.<\/p>\n

But senior sources in Brussels and in Dublin, speaking anonymously in order to freely discuss sensitive issues, dismissed the idea of allowing US beef and chicken into the EU, though they indicated that the EU was willing to consider other adjustments.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Trump tariffs: Why did he pause abruptly, what happens next and what does it mean for Ireland?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Sources cited likely strong objections from public opinion but also from the EU\u2019s powerful farming lobby to any changes that would allow US hormone-treated beef or chlorine-washed chicken into the EU single market \u2013 an issue that has been repeatedly raised by the Trump<\/a> administration.<\/p>\n

But one senior source suggested the EU might be willing to make concessions on non-sensitive agriculture and food standards.<\/p>\n

Negotiators from the EU are still trying to scope out exactly what concessions the US administration is seeking, as part of any deal to suspend tariffs.<\/p>\n

Brussels also played down the prospect of the EU cutting ties with China in order to pave the way for a trade deal with the US. EU officials cite the bloc\u2019s intention to \u201cde-risk\u201d its relations with China \u2013 a long-time objective of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen<\/a> \u2013 but say the US\u2019s requirement of \u201cdecoupling\u201d is not viable.<\/p>\n

According to a readout of the meeting between Mr Lutnick and Mr Sefcovic supplied by officials in Brussels, the commission will continue with its preparations for \u201ccountermeasures\u201d \u2013 in other words, retaliatory tariffs which could be placed on US imports in response to the tariffs already applied to EU goods entering the US.<\/p>\n

In Washington, the Trump administration said it had begun an investigation into trade in pharmaceuticals imports, a move widely expected to serve as a precursor to tariffs on pharma products, including billions of euro in exports from Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union will not agree to sweeping changes to its food safety rules to suit American farmers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[1395,32,2000,299,5187,1699,14009,1216,49,1220,2612],"class_list":{"0":"post-23984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-howard-lutnick","15":"tag-maros-sefcovic","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","18":"tag-us-tariffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114346096231673368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}