The trade war between the EU and the US for aid granted to Airbus will take its toll on the most emblematic products of the Spanish countryside: olive oil, wine, cheeses, olives or pork products will be taxed with tariffs. They are exports worth 1,000 million euros, almost 75% of total agri-food sales to other countries .

The Federation of Food and Beverage Industries (FIAB) raised the figure to 1,728 million, also including fruits and vegetables and spirits. They are products made in Spain, which, in addition, in the case of ham or olive oil, have been making important promotional campaigns in the US, so these tariffs not only compromise part of current sales, but also the potential growth that They can have in this market.

«After the EU, the United States is the first market for Spanish food and beverage exports. It is a strategic market for the national industry, ”Fiab lamented yesterday. The Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) asked the Government of Spain and the community authorities "maximum collaboration and effort to avoid the imposition of tariffs." The Exporters Club demanded an "agreed solution" between the US and the EU since "moving forward with these charges would be to burn the fire at a particularly complex moment from the economic point of view on a global scale," warned the president of the Club of Exporters, Antonio Bonet.

The tariffs announced by Donald Trump to European airplanes and to more than a thousand European products (from France, Germany, United Kingdom) to compensate the aid granted to Airbus will weigh on the most precious Spanish products abroad, once the approved by the World Trade Organization (WTO). This threat will materialize on the 18th of this month, when the definitive list of appraised products is published. For now, Trump has boasted of "a beautiful victory."

The most affected sectors (associations of farmers, employers and the ministries involved) denounced yesterday the injustice that supposes that, in the end, the duck of the commercial war is paid by the Spanish countryside. "Spanish farmers and ranchers are again the main collateral victims of the commercial conflict," they denounced in the Association of Small Farmers Union (UPA).

"If we cannot allow our agriculture to be a currency in trade agreements with third countries, let alone we will tolerate our sector being the helpless hostage in trade wars between world powers," said Pedro Barato, president of the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (Asaja).

The acting Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, will meet in the coming days with the sectors involved in the tariffs to "establish a reaction and a common position." "Our producers will be affected but also the American consumers who will have to pay 25% more of those products that they acquire of European origin," said Planas.

The Secretary of State for Commerce, Xiana Méndez, said that one of the most affected regions will be Andalusia, producer of oil and olives. He also said that these years "have been especially good," with growth rates in US sales of 14%, because "they are products highly valued by the US consumer." "This is a movement that will primarily hit US consumers and businesses and makes efforts towards a negotiated agreement more difficult," said community government trade spokesman Daniel Rosario. "If the US imposes its measures, it will force Europe to do the same," he threatened.

In the case of Spain, tariffs affect oil and olives, pigs (products such as ham), wine, fruits, dairy products, including all kinds of cheeses, juices and shellfish. Only in olive oil and wine, Spain exports products to the US for more than 700 million euros: 405 million in olive oil and 299 million wine.

Both sectors have been carrying out promotional campaigns in the US market for years, having achieved a significant increase in exports. In the case of oil, US purchases from Spain have shot up 40% in the first half of this year, precisely because of the fear of a rise in tariffs and the fall in prices in our country after years of improvements .

In the case of cured ham, for example, exports to the US increased by 227% in the 2014-2018 period, “what speaks of a market in strong expansion,” explains Carlos del Hoyo, director of Marketing and Promotion of the Consortium of the Spanish serrano ham. These tariffs therefore threaten to limit the margin of growth of these products in a market where they still have a long way to go.

In the case of wine, Spain is, together with France, one of the main exporters of broths to the US. It was the fourth destination of Spanish sales in value, with a total of 300 million euros.

The affected wines are the quiet ones packaged below 14 degrees, that is, the wines without bubbles; It would not affect the sparkling wines (cava) or the generous ones (fine, chamomile ...). The total value of our sales of this type of broth to the US is 240 million, so tariffs will affect 74% of exports.

"We do not understand that agricultural products like ours are involved in a conflict generated by other sectors," lamented the general director of the Spanish Wine Federation (FEV), José Luis Benítez.

The cheese sector warned that, if tariffs are applied, sales to the US, the first destination in value for Spain, with 88 million a year, may fall. The general director of the National Federation of Dairy Industries (Fenil), Luis Calabozo, said that all types of cheese exported, which are mostly of high value, such as sheep cigars or with designation of origin will be affected . Spain has increased its sales by 50% in recent years to that destination, which already accounts for 18% of total Spanish cheese exports.

The concern is because Spain is thinking about the precedent of black olives, whose exports to the US have collapsed after the country approved tariffs. In this case, Trump imposed these fees with the excuse that Spanish producers benefited from EU aid (those of the CAP) and therefore had more competitive prices than California producers. After the approval of the rates, the sales of black olives of the latter have increased.

María Ángeles Ruiz, professor of market research at EAE Business School, believes that companies, once the rates are approved, have several options: «Continue as until now, even if you lose part of the sales, look for alternative markets, or make a triangulation to reach the US through third countries with better conditions », for example Canada.

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