EU Commissioner for agriculture, rural development and fisheries, Franz Fischler, has opened the first stop of his five-day trip to Japan and Thailand, by addressing the Japanese Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives and agri-business representatives in Tokyo, before meeting Japan’s minister for foreign affairs, Mrs Kawaguchi.
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Commenting to Kawaguchi on “the positive development of European Union (EU)-Japan relations”, Fischler discussed the value of our bilateral co-operation within the WTO, his interest in building further on the existing close partnership, and the mid-term review of EU agricultural policy.
“Japan and the EU have created a very close political and trade relationship over the last decade,” he said. Nevertheless, “Europe and Japan can substantially benefit from closer cooperation.”
Fruits of agriculture partnership
The fruits of our partnership in the field of agriculture are already clear, he said. Aside from an increase in trade, “we are co-operating well in the new Round of WTO negotiations on agriculture.”
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By GlobalData“Together, we must ensure that the rules that will emerge from the new Round will permit us to pursue our legitimate policies to support farmers while avoiding to the greatest extent possible, trade distortion. We are determined to give an example that it is possible to support farmers while limiting the effects on international trade.
“We (EU and Japan) both believe in a fair and sustainable trading system, that all countries should profit from more open trade, and that more open trade means more wealth for all countries. However, liberalisation does certainly not mean that we abandon our farmers. We believe that preserving our agricultural system can be done without trade barriers,” Fischler reiterated.
The EC’s proposals to review the Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) foresee a decoupling of farm support from production. This clearly indicates our intentions to create a non-trade distorting policy. “This is all the more relevant today as the US has
unfortunately chosen the opposite way when adopting a new farm bill three months ago,” he stressed. “The past has shown us that the EU is on the right track, and we should continue on this way.”
“We already support farmers who are farming in an environmentally friendly way,” said Fischler. With the mid-term review “we could make Europe’s agricultural policy even more sustainable than ever before and strengthen the quality of European food products.”
Looking to continue efforts to improve food safety and quality, Fischler pointed out that, “we have learned our lessons from past problems and elaborated a very strict food safety policy”. A successful policy is one that finds, “creative answers to what our society is expecting from us”. Our proposals “re-link farmers with the expectations of society, help farmers react to market demand, favour the environment and reduce trade distortion. I hope that our international partners will appreciate this too.”.
More information on the EC’s CAP mid-term review can be found by clicking here.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/mtr/index_en.htm
