Europe is raising new trade barriers in the guise of domestic green agriculture policies, warns Ted McKinney, chief executive officer of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture in the United States.
The “farm to fork” policy of the European Union could push restrictive EU regulations onto anybody hoping to export agricultural goods into the vast market, he told a recent meeting of North American Agriculture Journalists.
“I’m frustrated that there’s this dictatorial approach that says, ‘this is the way, the truth and the life, and this is how you’re going to achieve the goals,’ and they don’t trust others who are already proving them wrong,” McKinney said.
Farm to fork is a recently adopted strategy that aims to promote sustainable farming, including protection of the environment, production of high-quality food in sufficient quantities, and adequate farm incomes.
The fear for exporting nations is that the EU will force imports to have been produced following EU rules and regulations, effectively blocking the market to many countries with different policies.
“It’s getting pretty draconian,” said McKinney, who also served chief agricultural trade negotiator for the United States.
There have been European non-tariff trade barriers in the past such as banning genetically-modified crop varieties, pesticides that had been judged safe when used as directed and growth promotants for livestock.
