Last December, we told you how important it is for the spirit sector to have an ambitious trade deal finally signed with MERCOSUR.
Improving our access to important markets such as Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay represents a huge opportunity for our sectors (our currently export to MERCOSUR only amount to €200m). We all know that a deal could not be concluded end of last year on the fringe of the WTO Ministerial conference and not just because of beef quota!
Another meeting is planned this week which is another opportunity to raise again our issues of concern.
The deal must deliver a significant level of market access by removing the tariffs applied to spirits from entry into force, thus permitting our products to compete on a level playing field. We understand that the latest offer from MERCOSUR partners liberalises market access for most spirits in 15 years thereby introducing a difference between categories. This is not acceptable, especially, especially when the tariff offer from the EU is on a phase-out of 10 years maximum.
A second point that is crucial for us but also for many other agri-food producers across Europe is the protection of GIs. It is probably the first time the EU faces with such a large number of GIs issues to be solved, be they from Ireland, France, Portugal, Italy, Spain etc. Conflicting names, genericity, anteriority of brand protections, etc. are at stake but we count on DG AGRI and DG TRADE not to sign any agreement that would not find a suitable solution for most of them! The EU – and increasingly other countries in the world like Japan and China - have understood the social and economic importance of GIs (driving for instance 2/3 of our spirits exports) and we should not compromise on this point.
Thirdly, the EU should also be ambitious in making sure that existing tax discrimination cannot remain at the risk of making market access meaningless for European exporters & investors.
Finally, the deal should remove the technical barriers that hamper access of EU spirits to the MERCOSUR markets. To remove the technical obstacles, we strongly support the inclusion of a wine and spirits annex that solves the non-tariff barriers that we encounter in the MERCOSUR markets and contains guarantees for effective implementation.
