EU dismisses US demands on food standards and ties to China

The European Union will not agree to sweeping changes to its food safety rules to suit American farmers and nor will the bloc agree to cut ties with China as the United States wants it to do, according to senior sources in Dublin and Brussels.

This suggests that agreement between the EU and US on trade, following the imposition of tariffs by Donald Trump, will be hard to reach.

The European Commission, which is the EU’s executive arm that sets trade policy, publicly repeated that the union’s high food safety standards are not on the table in any negotiations with the US.

“EU standards, particularly as they relate to food health and safety, are sacrosanct. That’s not part of the negotiation, it never will be, not with the US or anyone else,” a commission spokesman said on Tuesday.

EU regulations of tech and social media companies, which US multinationals have criticised as overbearing, were also “not up for negotiation,” the spokesman said.

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Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 states were briefed on the latest round of talks, between European trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, that took place in Washington, DC, on Monday.

The briefing outlined the EU side felt there was a need for the US to define its position and what it wanted.

The meeting in Washington, DC, which lasted a couple of hours, saw the EU delegation stress the complex nature of the pharmaceutical sector’s supply chain across the Atlantic, which tariffs could disrupt.

After Monday’s meeting between Mr Lutnick and Mr Šefčovič, Brussels issued a cautious assessment stressing that both sides must “bring something to the table”.

An Irish assessment of the US position after Tánaiste Simon Harris’s meeting with Mr Lutnick last week said that the US wanted the EU to scrap restrictions on American agricultural produce and cut close trading ties with China if it wanted to secure a new trade deal with the US.

But senior sources in Brussels and in Dublin, speaking anonymously in order to freely discuss sensitive issues, dismissed the idea of allowing US beef and chicken into the EU, though they indicated that the EU was willing to consider other adjustments.

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Sources cited likely strong objections from public opinion but also from the EU’s powerful farming lobby to any changes that would allow US hormone-treated beef or chlorine-washed chicken into the EU single market – an issue that has been repeatedly raised by the Trump administration.

But one senior source suggested the EU might be willing to make concessions on non-sensitive agriculture and food standards.

Negotiators from the EU are still trying to scope out exactly what concessions the US administration is seeking, as part of any deal to suspend tariffs.

Brussels also played down the prospect of the EU cutting ties with China in order to pave the way for a trade deal with the US. EU officials cite the bloc’s intention to “de-risk” its relations with China – a long-time objective of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen – but say the US’s requirement of “decoupling” is not viable.

According to a readout of the meeting between Mr Lutnick and Mr Sefcovic supplied by officials in Brussels, the commission will continue with its preparations for “countermeasures” – in other words, retaliatory tariffs which could be placed on US imports in response to the tariffs already applied to EU goods entering the US.

In Washington, the Trump administration said it had begun an investigation into trade in pharmaceuticals imports, a move widely expected to serve as a precursor to tariffs on pharma products, including billions of euro in exports from Ireland.