EU hinders Brazilian chicken imports

At the Doha talks , EU negotiators proposed the expansion of existing quotas for Brazilian poultry to just 36,000 mt per year, which perhaps could be extended to a volume of 100,000 tonnes, or 2.5 % of Europe’s entire domestic consumption.

The EU currently allows free access to only 29,000 mt of Brazilian chicken and turkey , representing 0.4 % of European consumption, which totals 11 million mt annually.

Any importation of the product that surpasses the permitted volume is hit with steep fees and special safeguard measures that, together, impose an additional €1,450 per mt in tariffs, or the equivalent of 100% of the original selling price of the goods involved.

In 2005, Brazil exported nearly 350,000 mt of poultry meats to the EU, more than 60% of it taxed under extremely high protections.

The EU has changed the rules by moving salted chicken into a higher tax bracket that also affects unsalted meats, and imposes a fixed tariff of €1,024 per tonne (about 70% of the original selling price for Brazilian poultry shipped to Europe).

Brazil filed a WTO case against the EU, which was judged favourably, forcing the EU to return to previous tariff levels.

The EU did not lower its tariffs, a decision based on Article 28 of the GATT 1947 , which allows any member to alter these tariffs, as long as countries hurt by the change are compensated.