Council and Parliament must still approve the measure
The European Commission is set to unveil a Mercosur-style safeguard mechanism for its trade agreement with Australia, covering all products, including sensitive agricultural goods like beef and sugar.
Raimondo Serra, a senior official at the Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture, said on Monday in the European Parliament that the EU executive would unveil “anytime soon” a legislative proposal for a reinforced bilateral safeguard.
The EU official said that, for now, he couldn’t disclose the specific import volumes that would trigger the safeguard – which would halt exports at a low or zero tariff.
Until now, such a dedicated instrument – a separate legislative text outside the EU–Australia free trade agreement concluded in March – had only been used in the deal with Mercosur countries, particularly controversial among the farming sector.
