The Brazilian government meets this Wednesday with the European Union to try to reverse the European bloc’s decision to no longer buy meat from Brazil from September onwards. The news was received with surprise by Brazilian authorities this Tuesday. The meeting with the health authorities of the European bloc was announced in a joint note from three ministries: Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Foreign Affairs and Agriculture and Livestock.
Brazil’s removal from the list of countries authorized to export products of animal origin intended for human consumption to the European Union would come into effect on September 3rd. The decision was taken in a vote by the European Commission’s Standing Committee for Plants, Animals, Food and Feed, which approved an update to the list of countries authorized to sell to the bloc.
The justification is related to the rules for the use of antimicrobials in animal husbandry. The Brazilian government wants to maintain the commercial flow of these products to the European market, as it has done for four decades. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of proteins of animal origin and the main supplier of agricultural products to the European market.
The Europeans’ decision was announced less than two weeks after the Mercosur-European Union agreement came into force, reducing tariffs on Brazilian meat, which reached 20%, to between 0 and 7.5%. The first operations with the new quotas had already been registered. In a press conference with the Foreign Press Association, Pedro Miguel, head of the Brazilian delegation at this Wednesday’s meeting, said that the new listing has no direct connection with the agreement, but could have consequences:
“I would like the dialogue with the European side on this matter to have been more frequent and more fluid. This regulation that will come into force in September on antibiotics, the use of antibiotics here in Europe, is legislation that we were already aware of and is something separate from the agreement, but yes, it could have an impact. I have a meeting with the European authorities where I hope they will tell me what were the reasons that led the European animal health area to exclude Brazil”, he states.
Although Brazil was left out of the list, other Mercosur countries, such as Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, will be able to continue selling products of animal origin for human consumption to Europeans.
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