(Bloomberg) -- A U.S. agriculture official took a swipe at the European Union’s import policies in agriculture, a sector America has been urging the bloc to address in trade talks.
The EU is using “non science-based” and “backward-looking” trade protectionist measures when it comes to its farm-good imports, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s chief agriculture negotiator Gregg Doud.
“It’s shocking to me to see the direction Europe is heading when it comes to the use of science and technology in agriculture,” Doud told the National Grain and Feed Association’s annual convention in Amelia Island, Florida. “We can no longer let the EU get away with circulating a false narrative that EU agriculture is superior to the rest of the world.”
The U.S. has been pressing the EU to address agriculture in trade talks, a sector the bloc has vowed to leave out. Farm production in the region is subsidized and measures including controls on approvals of genetically-modified products help keep some American goods from going in.
European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom has said that agriculture would not be included in free-trade talks with the U.S., and the bloc insists that a pact reached in July to lower trans-Atlantic trade barriers is limited to industrial goods, aside from soybeans. The EU has been a key buyer of the oilseed in recent months, with U.S. exports in the 12 months ended February doubling amid attractive prices following the trade spat with China.
Doud also responded to some concerns in the U.K. that a post-Brexit trade deal with the U.S. could lead to lower food standards because American products aren’t as safe.
“We cannot let our trading partners anywhere in the world get away with such language,” he said. “It’s intolerable and quite frankly it’s just not true.”
A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Theresa May said earlier this month that the U.K. will not lower food standards as part of any future trade agreements. The comments came as President Donald Trump’s administration signaled it wants “comprehensive access” for U.S. farm goods in any trade deal with Britain, as well as removing “unwarranted barriers” for products related to health and safety checks.
(Updates with details of EU’s view on talks in fifth paragraph.)