CNA warns of losses due to EU ban on Brazilian meat imports.

The president of the Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (CNA), João Martins, sent letters to Itamaraty and to the president of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Nelsinho Trad, warning of the damage to the agricultural sector with the European Union's decision to suspend, from Thursday (3), the entry into the bloc of Brazilian products of animal origin. And he asks for a series of measures to reverse the situation. “The measure, resulting from the extraterritorial application of rules on the use of antimicrobials, disregards the rigor of Brazil's official sanitary defense and inspection system, imposing immediate damage to national production chains, generating serious and unjustified distortion in access to the European market,” says João Martins in the letter sent to Ambassador Mauro Vieira, Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the document, the CNA requests the activation of the Concessions Rebalancing Mechanism, which “was expressly designed to protect the Parties against unilateral legislation that disrupts the agreed economic and commercial balance.” According to the letter sent by the CNA to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “from the perspective of international trade, the blockade promoted by the European Union results in a clear annulment and prejudice of commercial benefits legitimately expected by Brazil. In this sense, Brazil has the prerogative to demand the restoration of the commercial balance through equivalent compensations or, subsidiarily, the proportional suspension of tariff concessions granted to that bloc.” Martins concludes by stating that “given the gravity and urgency of the situation, the CNA requests Your Excellency to formally assess the viability and opportunity of activating the Concessions Rebalancing Mechanism foreseen in the agreement.” Senate – In a letter sent to Senator Nelsinho Trad, president of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, João Martins requests "urgent measures" within the committee's competence. Among the measures are: – Holding a public hearing with the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), and the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) to assess the economic impacts of the measure and the trade defense actions to be adopted by the federal government; – Holding a meeting with the representative of the European Union and heads of diplomatic missions of the member states in Brazil to provide clarifications and discuss solutions that preserve trade flows; – Submitting a formal request for information to the Executive Branch regarding the feasibility of activating the Concessions Rebalancing Mechanism within the framework of the Mercosur-European Union Agreement. "The prompt intervention of the Federal Senate is indispensable for the competitiveness of Brazilian rural producers and to restore balance in bilateral relations with the European Union," states João Martins at the end of the letter.

This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.