The agro-food sector and the ttip

Abstract

The agreement on free trade and investment that the EU is negotiating with the US to create the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) may have a significant impact on the Catalan food industry. The size of this effect depends on the degree to which the agreement effectively eliminates tariff and non-tariff barriers to reciprocal trade. As to the former, although on average the customs duties of both areas are low, some high tariffs (tariff peaks) and very high tariffs (mega tariffs) remain for certain agro-food products. At the same time, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and other technical barriers are highly significant obstacles to trade for a large part of the agricultural and food sector products. The elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to agro-food trade between the EU and the US will lead to changes in the dynamics and composition of this trade, and therefore it will also have sizeable effects on different agro-food subsectors. Seen from the EU, for some subsectors the TTIP is an opportunity to consolidate and expand exports to the US market. Other sectors fear competition from US productions which have not had access to the EU market until now because of tariffs and/or sanitary, phytosanitary or technical barriers. The final effect on the EU and Catalan agro-food industries will depend on the final content of an agreement still under negotiation.

Keywords: free trade agreements, international trade, European Union, United States, agro-food industry, trade policy.