Roundup: TTIP to spell disaster for European farming: report

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and the United States could spell disaster for European farming, a latest report said.

The latest report carried out by Friends of the Earth depicted a gloomy prospect for the EU agricultural sector under the TTIP, saying the deal will bring far fewer benefits for EU farming and food production.

According to the report, TTIP will negatively impact agriculture's contribution to the EU's gross domestic product (GDP), with a predicted decline up to 0.8 percent.

The United States, on the other hand, is expected to benefit from the TTIP by increasing the agricultural contribution to its GDP by up to 1.9 percent, or 4 billion euros (4.55 billion U.S. dollars) of net trade benefits.

The report predicted that, under the TTIP, many farmers across the EU will be facing stronger competition and lower prices.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is predicting falls in the price paid to European farmers in every food category.

According to the report, European gains are restricted to a few sectors, such as cheese.

"But even these are highly dependent on the US giving way on the 'non-tariff measures' that it uses to restrict trade," the report said.

Corporate lobby groups on both sides of the Atlantic are pushing for more market access, but European and American food is produced to different standards of food safety, animal welfare and environmental protection.

"However, even if EU standards are maintained, increased imports from the US will still flood European markets, ensuring huge export opportunities and profits for food corporations and US factory farms at the expense of European farmers," the report said.

According to the European Commission, trade between the EU and the United States represented some 616 billion euros in 2015, of which agriculture accounted for 31 billion euros.

Meanwhile, the EU had a total surplus of 123 billion euros with the United States for trade in goods and a surplus of over 7 billion euros in agricultural goods in last year, thanks to exports of EU high-value added products, such as wine, spirits and other beverages.

Therefore, the European Commission put its negotiating focus on Geographical Indications - products that have a specific geographical origin and have reputations based on origin.

However, according to the report, the benefits of the deal seem likely to be restricted to just three EU countries - France, the UK and Italy - and just a few products such as cheese, champagne and whisky.

The economic models used in the report showed that, if TTIP were to lift EU bans on beef hormone imports, cheap imports of U.S. beef would crush EU's weaker production.

Moreover, tariff elimination within "TTIP will have a negative impact on EU cereals production, with declines of up to 6 percent in some member states."

The elimination of tariffs on U.S. hormone-treated pork imports would also, according to the report, lead to declines in the EU's "white meat" sector, of up to 9 percent in the Baltic states, as well as significant extra imports.

Furthermore, Friends of the Earth's report highlighted that consumer and environmental protection may pay high costs such as the approval of genetically modified foods, and relaxations in pesticide safety rules, bans on hormones and pathogen washes in meat production, in exchange for deeper market access to the U.S. market.

Friends of the Earth Europe is the largest grassroots environmental network in Europe. Endit