Italy wants stricter 5% safeguard trigger in Mercosur deal, minister says

Francesco Lollobrigida told financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore that Rome was ​pushing to lower the point at which safeguard clauses would ‍be triggered, reducing it to 5% from the 8% currently proposed. Under the mechanism, the agreement would be suspended if imports from Latin America rose above ⁠that ‌threshold or if European ⁠agricultural prices fell by more than the same amount.

Italy wants a stricter threshold for the suspension of imports under the ‌planned Mercosur trade agreement, its agriculture minister said in an interview published on Thursday, ahead of ⁠an EU vote on the treaty where Rome's stance could prove decisive. Francesco Lollobrigida told financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore that Rome was ​pushing to lower the point at which safeguard clauses would ‍be triggered, reducing it to 5% from the 8% currently proposed.

Under the mechanism, the agreement would be suspended if imports from Latin America rose above ⁠that ‌threshold or if European ⁠agricultural prices fell by more than the same amount. "We want this ‍8% threshold to be lowered to 5%. And we believe there are ​the conditions to achieve this result," Lollobrigida was quoted as ⁠saying.

He also said Italy's diplomats were carrying out final technical and political checks after ⁠receiving initial guarantees on food-safety reciprocity, an issue Rome has long raised. Italy wants to ensure that farm products imported ⁠into the EU meet the same standards required of EU producers. "We're down ⁠to the ‌last mile," he said, adding that EU countries will review progress at a meeting of member-state representatives (Coreper) ⁠on Friday.

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