By Heather Johnston | Innova | Food Policy
The US and the countries of the EU have a long history of exchange of agricultural ideas, but a much less strong direct trade relationship.
However, a transatlantic trade agreement between the EU and the US is now rising on the political agenda, and this has implications for agrifood policy and trading, as well as sustainability policies.
EU countries are not America’s major trade partners, and EU agrifood exports to the US are limited.
The EU (all 28 countries) is ranked 5th by US agrifood exports, behind China, Canada, Mexico and Japan, and 3rd ranked by imports (after Canada and Mexico). Individual markets like Germany or the UK are, of course, much smaller. EU countries do not figure in the top ten agricultural export destinations for major commodities in US Census Bureau data, apart from soybean sales to Germany (3% of total).
In recent years, the dialogue across the Atlantic has become more adversarial as US-based corporations have backed technologies such as genetically-modified crops, and EU countries have rejected these.
All responsible agricultural and food companies are agreed that the global food market requires not only increased output, but sustainability. However, on examination, it appears that “sustainability” has a very different interpretation west of the Atlantic than it does to the east.
This article has been published here with kind permission from Innova.