US tariffs on agricultural products of the European Union come into force today and in Spain the sector prepares to alleviate its impact. So far, the various associations affected have faced common and warned that it could mean the loss of 5,000 jobs.

Those affected announced yesterday the creation of a platform to reject the imposition of 25% tariffs on their exports to the United States. These rates are the US penalty for aid granted to Airbus.

The countries most affected are precisely the members of this consortium (Germany, United Kingdom, France and Spain). This explains, for example, that there are tariffs on French or Spanish wine but not on Italian, for example.

"We do not want to be a currency in a foreign dispute. The intervention at the highest level of the Government, the European Commission and allied countries is essential to avoid an open trade war that will be harmful in all directions," they say from the Platform .

Diplomacy has not worked in these weeks and the EU has not succeeded in making the country back in this measure, which in the case of Spain will mean that the affected sectors (olive oil, dairy, wine and olives, mainly) pay annual rates of 192 million , according to initial calculations made by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The tariffs will weigh on exports worth almost 800 million euros. With 1,843.47 million euros sold in 2018, the US is the first destination market for Spanish food and beverage exports after the EU. Tariffs also affect pig products, juices, spirits, molluscs and prepared or preserved fruits, according to the platform.

The olive precedent

Although tariffs will initially result in an increase in the prices of products indicated for the North American consumer , in the medium term it can cause exports to fall, with the consequent damage to producers. In Spain there is a precedent for black olives, whose exports have plummeted 50% since the entry into force of US tariffs.

The sector council of Cooperatives Agro-alimentary indicated yesterday that these rates will be a varapalo more for the table olive, since they would add to the tariffs of November of 2017. This would suppose to tax 100% the sale of olive in the United States, market where Black olive sales have been reduced by 50% in the last two years, from 27,435 tons of the 2016-2017 campaign to 13,722 of 2018-2019, and the accumulated losses already reach 60 million euros.

Faced with the already irremediable entry into force of the rates, those affected already think of Plan B, how to mitigate their impact. In fact, the acting Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, already asked the Commissioners of Agriculture and Commerce of the EU last week for measures to help the sectors touched.

Among these measures is to activate the mechanism for private storage of olive oil. This initiative applies when oil prices fall below a certain level. The financial resources of the Commission are then activated to withdraw, on behalf of public funds, a certain amount of oil and thus relieve the producers.

Spain wants this option to be activated, despite the fact that the price has not yet dropped to those alarm levels, given the exceptional circumstances that the sector will find after the rates come into effect.

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