UPA rejects that agriculture is a bargaining chip in negotiations on a free trade agreement between EU and US
The Union of Small Farmers and ranchers (UPA) participates today in Amsterdam in a great meeting of agricultural organizations across Europe. A summit that UPA will use to report the European Commissioner Phil Hogan, his concern that the agricultural sector will serve as a bargaining chip in negotiations Transatlantic Free Trade and Investment (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States, for preserve the interests of others “supposedly more powerful” sectors.
According to that the farmers union will require Phil Hogan a strong defense from the European Union “of the model of food production that we have in Europe and in Spain, which clearly is more sustainable, safer and of higher quality than American “. Together with negotiations on a free trade area between the European Union and the United States, the search for solutions to the dairy crisis and renewal of the Russian veto on Spanish food exports until the end of 2017 will be other issues that also focus the debate, within the framework of the aforementioned EU summit farmers, organized by the COPA-COGECA, an organization representing cooperatives and agricultural organizations at community level, and that will coincide with the informal meeting of agriculture ministers of the EU, which assists the Spanish minister, Isabel García Tejerina.
The secretary general of UPA, Lorenzo Ramos, is who will take the voice of farmers and stockbreeders represented by that farmers union on such as important issues for the future of their industry, and other issues such as the use of glyphosate or simplifying CAP.
Ramos will ask the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan, “political courage and budget” to resolve the multiple problems facing the rural areas across the continent. “Our work should not be a task of heroes fighting against the odds, but a recognized, necessary and profitable profession”, he noted.
Commenting on the announcement of Russia to extend its ban on imports from countries such as Spain, at least until the end of 2017, UPA said not to be surprised by this decision, since, from the European Union, “no one has done anything to solve the embargo, so we are in the hands of Russia and its absurd policy and unjust punishment for the food industry. ” For that reason, the farmers union will ask their European colleagues to make a common front and to require the European institutions to begin a diplomatic dialogue “at the highest level to recover this important market.”
“With regard to the dairy crisis, we are facing a sector that, while is not the only one in crisis, it’s true that it’s through one of the worst situations in their history. The elimination of milk quotas has joined the industry and distribution strategy to control and manage the entire sector, it is reported from UPA. For its general secretary, “so far, the EU has organized actions that have not been more than a patch for a sector with serious structural problems.”
UPA agrees with the measure reducing production through compensation decreased cabin, however warns that “it would be a mistake” eliminate aid associated CAP for the dairy. This organization is committed to a public management system that includes an increase in intervention prices and an improved system of private storage.
Glyphosate
In another issues, UPA will defend his European colleagues before the renewal of the authorization of glyphosate, an active substance commonly used in the Spanish countryside. “In any case, we believe it should be cleared any doubts about his health”, said Ramos, “so a thorough study should be done and make the decision based on scientific criteria and never on impulse without foundation.” At present the renovation is still in the air, an agreement between Member States has not been reached.
Moreover, this agrarian organization expressed its misgivings when talking about simplifying the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), “because every time they try to make it simpler, the further complicate”. For the future CAP, defends UPA “recover market management measures, as we see how crises occur in sectors one after another and the CAP does not serve to stop them.” “We also believe that progress must be made in the figure of the active farmer, to aid the real professionals”, said Ramos.
Finally, the Spanish delegation will take advantage of this meeting of European farmers in Amsterdam to try to hold a meeting with French agricultural organizations in order to end the continuing attacks on Spanish lorries carrying food to Europe. UPA contends that “these criminal actions against our agricultural production must stop,” and its secretary general will ask this to the leaders of the French organization FNSEA (National Federation of Agricultural Holdings), among other partners. In the words of Ramos, “the EU can not stand aside in this matter, and must ensure the free movement of goods, one of the basic foundations of the Union.”
