Bilateral safeguard clause of the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement and the EU-Mercosur Interim Trade Agreement for agricultural products

The European Parliament adopted by 431 votes to 161, with 70 abstentions, amendments on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council implementing the bilateral safeguard clause of the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement and the EU-Mercosur Interim Trade Agreement for agricultural products.

The matter was referred back for interinstitutional negotiations to the committee responsible.

Investigations into serious harm

According to Parliament, the Commission should open an investigation into the need to take protective measures when imports of sensitive agricultural products increase by an average of 5% over a period of three years (compared to 10% per year in the Commission's proposal).

Clear indications of a deterioration in the economic situation of the industry, across the Union or at Member State level, including sustained decreases in domestic prices, may be sufficient to demonstrate injury to the sector and may warrant the initiation of an investigation.

Where possible, the investigation should be concluded within three months (rather than six months) and two months for sensitive products (rather than four months) from the date of publication of the notice of opening in the Official Journal of the European Union.

In case of sensitive products, provisional safeguard measures should be adopted without delay and in any event within a maximum of 14 days from the initiation of the investigation.

Environment, Health and phytosanitary clause

A safeguard measure could take the form of the introduction of a reciprocity obligation regarding products and production standards.

The Commission should initiate an investigation and adopt safeguard measures where there is credible evidence that imports benefiting from tariff preferences do not meet equivalent environmental, animal welfare, health, food safety, or labour protection requirements applicable to Union producers.

In the event of a documented risk to human, animal, or plant health, including the use of production methods prohibited in the Union or failure to comply with sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, the Commission may immediately suspend imports of the product benefiting from tariff preferences.

Anti-circumvention measures

If the Commission identifies circumvention of safeguard measures through changes in trade routes, including imports from Parties exempted from the safeguard measures, it may extend the scope of the safeguard measures to those imports or adopt other necessary implementing measures. The Commission should strengthen customs cooperation with Member States in verifying rules of origin and ensuring full traceability of imports of sensitive products.

Monitoring

The Commission should ensure constant and proactive monitoring of imports of all sensitive products from the date of entry into force of the interim trade agreement or the partnership agreement. It should present a monitoring report every three months, containing its assessment of the impact of imports of sensitive products benefitting from preferential market access under the Agreement, including data on import volumes and prices for all sensitive products, with appropriate regional disaggregation.

By 1 March 2026, the Commission should develop and make available to Member States technical guidelines on the indicators, parameters and types of data that can be monitored in markets at national and local level.