EU Economic Partnership Agreement with Southern African countries and its impact on Valencian citrus fruit

Subject: EU Economic Partnership Agreement with Southern African countries and its impact on Valencian citrus fruit

In October 2016, the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and five Southern African countries, including South Africa, came into effect.1 Under this agreement, there will be a gradual reduction of tariffs on oranges produced in South Africa which are imported into the EU until such a time as tariffs are abolished in 2025. This situation is harmful to European producers, particularly Valencians, who adhere to higher standards than those of South African producers and which therefore make their produce more expensive. Several studies, including one commissioned by the Unió de Llauradors (farmers’ union)2, have identified more than 50 active substances used in plant protection products on South African citrus fruits, a number of which are banned under Regulation (EC) No 1117/2009.3 South African citrus fruits can be damaging to plant health as they carry citrus black spot, which can be transmitted to European citrus fruit and cause major economic damage to the sector.

1. Does the Commission intend to analyse the impact of this agreement on the citrus sector?

2. How much does the Commission intend to spend on detecting, preventing and investigating this type of disease?

3. Does the Commission plan to increase the number of prior checks in order to prevent this disease from spreading and to prevent economic damage to the sector?

1 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM:0702_21

2 https://launio.org/post/analiticas-realizadas-por-la-unio-de-llauradors-en-laboratorio-revelan-que-sudaf-


3 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32009R1107

Answer given by Ms Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission

(4 March 2021)

The Commission systematically carries out ex-post evaluations of EU preferential trade agreements, after a sufficient period of implementation, to allow for a meaningful analysis (4). Starting this year, the Commission will review the Economic Partnership Agreement with the South Africa Development Community, and intends to analyse its impact and assess if the agreement still meets the intended objectives.

All interested stakeholders will be consulted. The Commission closely monitors the citrus trade developments and EU citrus market.

A dashboard on the main trends of the EU citrus fruit production and trade is available on the Agri-food Data Portal (5). The Commission is conscious of the mentioned difficulties raised by European producers but would like to stress that this agreement is the outcome of a long and difficult negotiating process. Any attempt for modifications would trigger reciprocal requests.

Phyllosticta citricarpa (the pest causing citrus black spot) is a priority pest (6) subject to annual surveys, which were eligible for EU co- funding during 2019-2020 (7) (8) and will be included in the future programme. The European Food Safety Authority was mandated to publish guidelines for statistically and risk-based surveys (9) (10) and organised workshops on crisis preparedness (11).

According to Commission Decision (EU) 2016/715 (12) each consignment of citrus fruit from Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Uruguay is inspected at import, including full documentary and identity checks and physical checks with a fixed level of sampling.

For citrus fruits from other non-EU countries, there is full documentary and identity check and the standard systematic risk-based physical checks in accordance with the regulation on Official Controls (13).

⋅1∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM:0702_21

⋅2∙ https://launio.org/post/analiticas-realisadas-por-la-unio-de-llauradors-en-laboratorio-revelan-que-sudaf-271367

⋅3∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32009R1107

⋅4∙ https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/policy-making/analysis/policy-evaluation/ ex-post-evaluations/#_methodology

⋅5∙ 1.https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farming-fisheries/farming/documents/citrus-dashboard_en.pdf

⋅6∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2019/1702/oj

⋅7∙ https://ec.europa.eu/food/sites/food/files/safety/docs/cff_plant_survey-prog_2019-2020_dec-2018-2491_en.pdf

⋅8∙ https://ec.europa.eu/food/sites/food/files/safety/docs/cff_plant_survey-prog_2019-2020_dec-2018-2491_annex_en.pdf

⋅9∙ https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/supporting/pub/en-1893

⋅10∙ https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/supporting/pub/en-1863

⋅11∙ https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/supporting/pub/en-1984

⋅12∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32016D0715&qid=1610549275373

⋅13∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32017R0625