ECCA: US tariffs risk driving up costs for farmers
US tariffs on agricultural products from the EU risk driving up costs for farmers, and ultimately risk impacting food affordability for consumers, according to the president of the European Crop Care Association (ECCA), Monica Teixeira.
The ECCA said it is deeply concerned about the potential escalation of reciprocal tariffs that such situations may provoke.
In January 2025, the commission published it's competitive compass strategy that "sets a path for Europe to become the place where future technologies, services, and clean products are invented, manufactured, and put on the market".
The ECCA said it supports the strategy, but that it must ensure that the proposed bloc-wide regulatory reforms will also strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of the European agricultural sector.
"Ensuring fair market access for post-patent plant protection products (PPPs) is a critical step,” Teixeira said.
“By providing farmers with cost-effective and proven plant protection solutions, Europe can reduce dependence on agricultural inputs and food imports, enhance its strategic autonomy in agriculture and mitigate the effects of external market shocks," she added.
The ECCA president believes that a turbulent geopolitical climate could also have a negative impact on Europe's agriculture sector.
"At a time when global trade disruptions threaten European agriculture - as we have also seen last year with the Suez Channel crisis, it is essential to strengthen the single market and remove intra-EU barriers by addressing regulatory inconsistencies for post-patent PPPs," she said.
"Unequal access to these critical tools across member states creates market distortions and weakens the competitiveness of European farmers.
"A more streamlined regulatory framework - aligned with the European Commission’s focus on competitiveness - would not only strengthen our strategic autonomy but also encourage innovation and investment in EU agriculture," she concluded.
Last month, US President Donald Trump signaled that a 25% tariff on goods exported from the EU into the US will be announced “very soon”.
Speaking prior to a meeting of his cabinet on Wednesday, February 26, Trump said on tariffs on EU goods: “We’ve made a decision, and we’ll be announcing it very soon.”
Trump said the figure would be 25%, and although he didn’t go into specifics on what exports from the EU would be impacted, he seemed to indicate that the tariff would be on all goods, saying it will be on “cars and all other things”.
