{ "id": "R46241", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R46241", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 618010, "date": "2020-02-27", "retrieved": "2020-02-27T23:08:07.775477", "title": "U.S.-EU Trade Agreement Negotiations: Trade in Food and Agricultural Products", "summary": "The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) officially notified the Congress of the Trump Administration\u2019s plans to enter into formal trade negotiations with the European Union (EU) in October 2018. In January 2019, USTR announced its negotiating objectives for a U.S.-EU trade agreement, which included agricultural policies\u2014both market access and non-tariff measures. However, the EU\u2019s negotiating mandate, released in April 2019, stated that the trade talks would exclude agricultural products. \nU.S.-EU27 Agricultural Trade, 1990-2019/\nSource: CRS from USDA data for \u201cTotal Agricultural and Related Products (BICO-HS6). EU27 excludes UK.\nImproving market access remains important to U.S. agricultural exporters, especially given the sizable and growing U.S. trade deficit with the EU in agricultural products (see figure). Some market access challenges stem in part from commercial and cultural practices that are often enshrined in EU laws and regulations and vary from those of the United States. For food and agricultural products, such differences are focused within certain non-tariff barriers to agricultural trade involving Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs), as well as Geographical Indications (GIs).\nSPS and TBT measures refer broadly to laws, regulations, standards, and procedures that governments employ as \u201cnecessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health\u201d from the risks associated with the spread of pests and diseases, or from additives, toxins, or contaminants in food, beverages, or feedstuffs. SPS and TBT barriers have been central to some longstanding U.S.-EU trade disputes, including those involving EU prohibitions on hormones in meat production and pathogen reduction treatments in poultry processing, and EU restrictions on the use of biotechnology in agricultural production. As these types of practices are commonplace in the United States, this tends to restrict U.S. agricultural exports to the EU. \nGI protections refer to naming schemes that govern product labeling within the EU and within some countries that have a formal trade agreement with the EU. These protections tend to restrict U.S. exports to the EU and to other countries where such protections have been put in place. \nPlans for U.S.-EU trade negotiations come amid heightened U.S.-EU trade frictions. In March 2018, President Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on most U.S. trading partners after a Section 232 investigation determined that these imports threaten U.S. national security. Effective June 2018, the EU began applying retaliatory tariffs of 25% on imports of selected U.S. agricultural and non-agricultural products. In October 2019, the United States imposed additional tariffs on imports of selected EU agricultural and non-agricultural products, as authorized by World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement procedures in response to the longstanding Boeing-Airbus subsidy dispute.\nPublic statements by U.S. and EU officials in January 2020, however, signaled that the U.S.-EU trade talks might include SPS and regulatory barriers to agricultural trade. Statements by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials cited in the press call for certain SPS issues as well as GIs to be addressed in the trade talks. However, other press reports of statements by EU officials have downplayed the extent that specific non-tariff barriers would be part of the talks. More formal discussions are expected in the spring of 2020. \nPrevious trade talks with the EU, as part of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) negotiations during the Obama Administration, stalled in 2016 after 15 rounds. During those negotiations, certain regulatory and administrative differences between the United States and the EU on issues of food safety, public health, and product naming schemes for some types of food and agricultural products were areas of contention.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R46241", "sha1": "1b70c08021126342d78c6128b3c9fd2277c9325f", "filename": "files/20200227_R46241_1b70c08021126342d78c6128b3c9fd2277c9325f.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46241_files&id=/3.png": "files/20200227_R46241_images_90bb0a86fedeb8344005b0c30c73fb2f3b4da9e6.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46241_files&id=/1.png": "files/20200227_R46241_images_108e9a0eb4898d73d7b44c6b8562dcf5ca9bc232.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46241_files&id=/0.png": "files/20200227_R46241_images_5b8d603015afd0f3a23a830e113886cc3faa0097.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46241_files&id=/6.png": "files/20200227_R46241_images_201b55e491f17c38f2dbf4b920632a423667ca11.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46241_files&id=/4.png": "files/20200227_R46241_images_23600576207525bbf17c9e715fc48dedfb5bad22.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46241_files&id=/5.png": "files/20200227_R46241_images_9d7f60fdeab4d8281ed3d525c5ea9ed3ae884127.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46241_files&id=/2.png": "files/20200227_R46241_images_ce35f99edde61df513f55074e0a6376cef7639f8.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R46241", "sha1": "cddea5993e92034b06d79d7f40127406baeb5695", "filename": "files/20200227_R46241_cddea5993e92034b06d79d7f40127406baeb5695.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "Agricultural Policy", "Economic Policy", "Foreign Affairs", "Industry and Trade" ] }