The Government has committed to strengthening the Food Chain Law, implementing reciprocity in the conditions of agricultural imports – the well-known mirror clauses -, simplifying the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and facilitating adaptation to European regulations. These are some of the proposals presented in the last control session to the Government in response to the push of the demonstrations by farmers and ranchers.
Sánchez has promised this strengthening of the Chain Law and the implementation of the mirror clauses while he has reiterated his “absolute willingness and dialogue” with the producers to whom he has shown his “absolute empathy.”
Mirror clauses
The representatives of the countryside who have demonstrated these days demand mirror clauses. These clauses require that the product that is imported into a country of the European Union does so under the same conditions that are imposed on ranchers and farmers of the 27.
That is, in this case it would mean that agricultural products imported from outside the EU are subject to the same requirements, controls and regulations as those produced within the Union.
If Community products comply with it, those coming from outside must also comply, since, by not requiring the same conditions from each other, “unfair competition” favorable to products from third countries would be generated, as José has explained. Friguls, president of Anafric, in a recent statement.
Food Chain Law
The food chain law seeks a fairer relationship between farmers, ranchers, industry and distribution. The cornerstone of the reform, which was introduced in 2020, is the ban on selling at a loss along the chain. That is, selling below cost and charging less than what was paid. The standard expands the scope of application and extends it to SMEs, relationships between wholesalers and between a supplier and a buyer when one is located in Spain and the other in a Member State of the European Union.
Simplify the CAP
The autonomous communities will present this week to the Ministry of Agriculture their proposals to simplify the CAP and reduce bureaucracy, and the Ministry will submit this first report to the Brussels Agriculture Council on the 26th. This was announced in an interview on Onda Cero by the minister. of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, in which he detailed that the next Council will also discuss the Food Chain Law of the 14th and other issues such as agricultural insurance.
