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It is understood that an offer of 70,000t of tariff rate quota (TRQ) beef has been proposed by the European Commission to the South American Mercosur bloc of countries and will be broken into two 35,000t batches.
The offer is contained in a leaked document dated 23 November 2017
The first batch is 35,000t of carcase weight equivalent (cwe) “fresh beef, including high-quality beef”. The proposal said this would be “phased in in six equal stages”.
The beef would be “selected beef cuts obtained from steers, young steer or heifers having been exclusively fed through pasture-grazing since their weaning”.
The second 35,000t cwe is for “frozen beef, including for processing”. The proposal also suggests phasing this in in “six equal stages”.
The “in-quota duty” for this has been proposed at 7.5%.
Other meat
The proposal also suggests 17,000t cwe of “fresh and chilled, frozen and prepared pigmeat”, 45,000t cwe of “boneless poultry meat”, 45,000t cwe of “bone-in poultry meat” and 3,000t cwe of sheep and goat meat.
On the dairy side, the Commission has proposed an offer of a 15,000t quota for milk powders and 5,000t of butter.
It is not yet clear what the reaction from Mercosur is but it will be discussed at a major round of negotiations in Argentina in early December.
The offer is contained in a leaked document dated 23 November 2017.
Long-standing
Europe and the Mercosur countries of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay have been negotiating a trade deal for some time now.
Mercosur countries already enjoy considerable access to the EU beef market under favourable tariff terms.
They are currently major users of the 69,500t Hilton beef quota, which gives access to the EU at a much-reduced 20% import tariff. Argentina and Uruguay also have access to the high-quality beef quota.
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