The EU - a major world trader in agricultural goods
The EU has extensive contacts and trading relations with third countries and trading blocks. The EU is a major player in global agricultural trade as the biggest importer and second largest exporter of foodstuffs. The EU plays a leading role in establishing global trade agreements in the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
It has also concluded and is in the process of negotiating bilateral trade agreements with individual third countries, free trade agreements with its near neighbours, special arrangements with developing countries, granting preferential access to the EU market, and more extensive relationships with regional groupings such as the South American countries of the Mercosur group.
The EU is the only big trading group, among the wealthier nations, which is not only granting preferential access to its markets for imports from developing countries, but is in practice actually importing considerable quantities from those countries.
COMMITTED TO MULTILATERAL TRADE RULES
The EU is clear that the growing trade between all countries, whether developed or less so, must be conducted under multilateral trade rules for the benefit of all countries, in particular developing countries. This is why the EU is a strong supporter of the WTO and has always played an active role in the WTO discussions and negotiations on trade in agriculture. The EU is committed to the 'Doha Development Agenda' (DDA), negotiations which aim at further liberalising trade whilst enhancing development. As regards agriculture the agreement of August 2004 paved the way for further negotiations that should deliver a considerably bigger farm trade liberalisation than the previous trade negotiations (the ‘Uruguay Round’). The agreement locks in the EU’s CAP reform.
It should bring a substantial cut in trade-distorting agricultural support, the elimination of trade–distorting export competition practices and contribute to a significant opening of agriculture markets whilst allowing for special treatment for sensitive products. All developing countries will benefit from special treatment, allowing them to liberalise less over a longer period.
THE SECOND LARGEST GLOBAL EXPORTER – AND THE BIGGEST IMPORTER
European agriculture is a major player in the world’s agricultural markets. The ability of EU agriculture to produce large quantities of agricultural products, and the diversity and quality of those products, means that the EU has become a major exporter of many foodstuffs (the second biggest exporter globally with agricultural exports worth EUR 72.553 billion in 2006).
But it is not all one-way traffic. The EU is also the biggest importer of agricultural products in the world. In 2006, EU imports of agricultural products were valued at EUR 67.876 billion.
The EU’s net export position has declined in every single sector since 1990.
