Food safety at risk? Hungary joins revolt against controversial EU-Mercosur agreement

In its current form, the EU-Mercosur trade agreement would endanger farmers’ livelihoods as well as food safety, especially since Brussels simultaneously opened the EU market to Ukrainian farm produce, Minister of Agriculture István Nagy said, according to a statement issued by his ministry on Friday.

With the adoption of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, a significant part of the import duties between the EU and the South American Common Market would be abolished, and a new market of around 800 million people would be created, Nagy noted. Agricultural products of questionable quality, such as poultry, beef, sugar and honey, would arrive in the EU in unmanageable quantities, he added.

Hungary continues to stand by the principle that products flowing into Europe should comply with the same production and traceability rules as EU products, the minister argued.

Hungary has started to search for allies on the matter among member states, and Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania and Italy also object to the agreement. Nagy noted that he had consulted his French counterpart in the spring and they had agreed that in its current form, the agreement posed a serious threat to European farmers, the statement said.

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