EXPLAINING Why the safeguard clause in the Mercosur agreement fails to protect the EU poultry meat sector

What is the issue?

The EU-Mercosur agreement foresees an additional safeguard clause meant to protect European farmers if imports surge and threaten the EU industry. However, the safeguard is designed in such a way that it will never realistically be triggered for poultry meat. Here is why:

The clause requires both:

• Imports from Mercosur rising by more than 10% year-on-year under preferential terms, and
• Import prices being at least 10% lower than EU market prices.

Because of the way imports are currently structured and new tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) are phased in, the first condition is essentially impossible to meet. In practice, the safeguard is illusory and non-functional.

Some concrete details:

• In 2024, the EU imported 286 600 T from Brazil.[1]
• The Mercosur agreement foresees 180 000 T of new quota to be phased in over 5 years under the following regime (see table 2): Year 0: +30k → Year 1: +60k → Year 2: +90k → Year 3: +120k → Year 4: +150k → Year 5: +180k.
• Based on this we calculated the percentage of increase compared to the baseline 2024, if the quota is fully used, making activation even more unrealistic.

In short, this safeguard has been designed not to ever be activated for our sector. Rather than a real protection mechanism, it functions mainly as a communication tool for the Commission to present the agreement as balanced in an effort to influence Member States and avoid opposition from countries that are against it.

Conclusion:

The European poultry sector reiterates its strong opposition to the EU-Mercosur agreement.

• The deal will expose EU producers to unfair competition, as imports do not meet the EU’s high standards on environment, animal welfare, and food safety.
• Without reciprocity of standards and mandatory origin labelling, EU consumers will have no way of knowing when they are consuming Mercosur poultry.
• The safeguard clause is ineffective and cannot mitigate the fundamental risks.

Clear message: The EU must not rely on empty safeguards. It should instead ensure fair rules, reciprocity, and transparency if it wants to protect its farmers, rural jobs, and consumers.

[1] https://circabc.europa.eu/sd/a/cdd4ea97-73c6-4dce-9b01-ec4fdf4027f9/24.08.2017-Poultry.pptfinal.pdf