The Minister of Agroindustry, Luis Miguel Etchevehere, made a positive assessment of his participation in the 20.01.2018th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) that took place in Berlin on Saturday (10); an opportunity in which he met with peers from XNUMX key countries to increase Argentina's participation in the international agroindustry. The Argentine delegation today joins the presidential agenda in Moscow.
«Our country has a very special international role this year by holding the G20 Presidency, which allows us to have a certain influence on the multilateral agenda; and in the case at hand, in the discussion of issues that affect global agricultural production and trade. But in this case, Berlin Forum, "Not only have we discussed these issues, but we were also able to promote, with some counterparts in parallel meetings, issues related to market access for our products; Argentine interests in ongoing trade negotiations; investment opportunities and actions related to agricultural cooperation," said Etchevehere.
Berlin Conference of Ministers of Agribusiness
In addition, the Minister and the Secretary of Agroindustrial Markets, Marisa Bircher, made the following agreements: meetings:
With Brazil and Paraguay
With his MERCOSUR counterparts, the Ministers of Agriculture of Brazil, Blairo Maggi, and Marcos Medina Britos of Paraguay (current pro tempore Presidency of MERCOSUR), Etchevehere said: "We agreed to convene a special meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of MERCOSUR in the near future, in order to promote the Harmonization of sanitary and phytosanitary regulationsas, such as the joint fixation of maximum residue limits of pesticides and veterinary products, the harmonization of health certificates for products of animal origin, and the border controls, which facilitate intraregional trade of our agro-industrial products."
He also added that "the four countries have similar production systems and export offers; that is why we agreed to begin Promote a serious debate in our region on glyphosate, including a proactive joint strategy to raise this issue in the appropriate forums, since until now we have limited ourselves to witnessing a discussion at the European level, but with strong implications at the global level. Another topic mentioned of common interest was the coordination of approvals of new biotechnological events, the Trade negotiations underway with the European Union, India, EFTA, among others, and the joint positioning of the region's products in new markets.
With countries of the European Union
The Argentine minister and the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, agreed on the need to move forward in the future MERCOSUR – European Union Association Agreement in a chapter on sanitary and phytosanitary disciplines which establishes mechanisms to facilitate trade in agro-industrial products between the two blocs and which also allows for the expeditious, pragmatic and scientific resolution of any obstacles arising from the application of such measures.
In addition to the various bilateral cooperation actions, Etchevehere spoke about "the window of opportunity we have to conclude this historic free trade negotiation, and the need to find the meeting point for balanced results«with the Ministers of Agriculture of France, Stéphane Travers; of the Netherlands, Carola Schouten; and of Germany, Christian Schmidt.
Both to the European Commissioner and to the ministers of these countries of the Block, the national official raised our country's concern about the discussions that had taken place in the EU regarding the renewal of the glyphosate, and also on the policy and legislation relating to phytosanitary substances, in which scientific rigour must prevail.
Bircher, for his part, stressed "the importance of these bilateral meetings to politically promote issues that could have been unresolved for years. In many cases, demonstrating to the counterparts the interest in the issues allows the respective technical teams to be moved to find concrete results."
With Japan
At the meeting with the Vice Minister of Agriculture of Japan, Hiromichi Matshushima, the prompt response was requested Recognition of the Patagonia region as free of foot-and-mouth disease without vaccination This will allow the export of beef and sheep meat from that area, but more importantly, it will also start the process of risk analysis of meat from the vaccination-free zone.
With India
Before the Deputy Minister of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of India, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Etchevehere advocated for the Prompt approval of products of Argentine interest, such as lentils, blueberries, citrus fruits, table grapes and the review of import tariffs for soybean oil and legumes that were recently raised and that affect our exports.
With New Zealand and Australia
With the Minister of Agriculture of New Zealand, Damien O'Connor, and the Assistant Minister of Australia, Anne Ruston, the Argentine delegation discussed the coincidences of positions of our countries in different international forums as food exporters and the strategic link of our country with these economies, in order to learn about successful management experiences, attract investment, and achieve a greater integration in the respective value chains.
Etchever with the Deputy Minister of Australia
On Monday, Etchevehere, Bircher and the team joined the presidential agenda that begins in Moscow, there accompanied by the Argentine Agroindustrial Counselor, Alonso Ferrando.
With Vladimir Plovnikov, president of Akkor, an association of Russian producers. We want to bring Argentine and Russian producers closer together and we are going to organize a visit for them soon. We can learn a lot from each other! ????pic.twitter.com/PHtk3v2Yy5
— Luis M Etchevehere (@lmetcevehere) January 22, 2018
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