The European Union tariffs on US cereals, as part of the bloc response to Washington’s taxes on steel and aluminum, would harm a European livestock sector dependent on imports for animal feed, said Wednesday the FEFAC Industry Association (European Federation of Feed Manufacturers).
A large EU commercial surplus with the United States in agriculture is a common complaint for US President Donald Trump, although the United States is the largest soybean supplier in the block and a significant corn provider.
The European Commission announced previously plans to impose additional tariffs on up to 26,000 million euros (28,000 million dollars) of US imports.
That would imply reintroducing from April 1 tariffs on goods such as corn that were suspended after a previous commercial battle during the first time of Trump, and impose tariffs from April 13 on products of a new list that includes soybeans.
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These tariffs “would negatively affect the resilience and competitiveness of EU livestock production systems,” said FFAC president Pedro Cordero, in a statement.
FEFAC, which represents feed manufacturers for cattle, said that feed cereals could support a negotiated agreement between the EU and the United States to avoid tariffs.
Given its dependence on foreign raw materials for feed, EU imports from the United States “can easily double from the current 4,000 million euros to 8,000 million euros, thus reducing the current agricultural commercial deficit of the United States with the EU,” said Cordero.
The tariff currently suspended for American corn is 25%, which could affect US corn in the main European imports, such as Spain.
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Chicago and soy corn futures went down on Wednesday, and the operators said EU’s countermeasures joined the concern that US agricultural exports may be harmed by Trump’s tariff policies.
With Reuters information
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