{"id":851080,"date":"2026-03-26T07:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/851080\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T07:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:20:15","slug":"copa-cogeca-condemns-eu-tariff-concessions-to-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/851080\/","title":{"rendered":"Copa Cogeca condemns EU tariff concessions to Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New tariff concessions by the European Commission to Australia continue a \u201cbad streak\u201d for European agriculture, says Copa Cogeca.<\/p>\n<p>The twin apexes for European farmers and their co-ops, Copa Cogeca <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenews.coop\/mercosur-deal-heads-up-list-of-policy-fears-for-copa-and-cogeca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">have raised a string of concerns over EU policy in recent weeks.<\/a> Now they say the conclusion of the EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement \u201craises multiple and strong concerns for European agriculture, which is clearly and once again the bargaining chip of the EU strategy to secure broader trade and political objectives.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>They say the deal, signed off in Canberra by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, constitutes \u201ca vision that responds to the emergencies of the moment, but whose medium-term consequences will be unsustainable for many sensitive farming sectors\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Of particular concern to Copa Cogeca are significant concessions on \u201chighly sensitive\u201d agricultural sectors \u2013 particularly beef (30,600\u202ft TRQ), sheep meat (25, 000 t TRQ \u2013 with only 27% frozen,) sugar (35,000\u202ft TRQ) and rice (8,500 t TRQ).<\/p>\n<p>These have long drawn strong opposition and concern from the farming community, the apexes add. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a post-Mercosur context, the cumulative impact of successive trade agreements makes these concessions unacceptable. Even for a traditionally more offensive sector like wine, the potential benefits of this agreement remain elusive, with Australian exporters likely to see more benefits due to the elimination of duties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenews.coop\/copa-and-cogeca-sound-the-alarm-over-eu-australia-trade-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Copa and Cogeca sound the alarm over EU-Australia trade deal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn fact, this new agreement cannot be separated from the very complex market context which affects European agriculture. Farmers across the EU are facing increases on all input costs, persistent inflationary pressures, prices that don\u2019t keep up, and increasing uncertainty linked to the developments in Iran and all the broader geopolitical context. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFurther openings of these sensitive sectors to free trade agreements would only worsen existing vulnerabilities and push many EU family farms to the breaking point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copa Cogeca levelled criticism of the \u201cabsence of a comprehensive approach to managing the cumulative impact of these agreements\u201d, which they say raise \u201cfundamental questions about the coherence and sustainability of EU trade policy\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cEuropean farmers cannot continue to absorb the cost of bilateral trade liberalisation without adequate and truly effective safeguards,\u201d they argue. \u201cFor now, such mechanisms proposed by the Commission remain more like communication tools to promote hardly acceptable agreements than truly effective mechanisms that can be activated in the event of a crisis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEuropean producers remain committed to delivering high-quality, sustainable products in line with some of the world\u2019s most stringent standards. It is therefore essential that trade agreements do not erode these efforts. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe now await the full details of the agreement, especially on the outcome of GI protection and TRQ management, to assess its precise implications and impact.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New tariff concessions by the European Commission to Australia continue a \u201cbad streak\u201d for European agriculture, says Copa&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[48488,142367,2000,299,5187,1699],"class_list":["post-851080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-copa-and-cogeca","tag-copa-cogeca","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116294269514631726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851080","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=851080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}