09.11.2018

CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL NEGINT Brasília, 09 de novembro de 2018

Índice I. OMC _______________________________________________ 2 EU to take Colombia to WTO over duties on frozen fries _________________ 2 Belgium raises stakes in Colombian frozen fries dispute __________________ 3 II. NEGOCIAÇÕES REGIONAIS E BILATERAIS _________________ 4 Canciller uruguayo: acuerdo entre Mercosur y la UE debería firmarse antes de mayo _________________________________________________________ 4 III. OUTROS ____________________________________________ 5 U.S. Crop Giants are Doing More Brazil Deals Thanks to Trade War_________ 5

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I. OMC EU to take Colombia to WTO over duties on frozen fries Politico (Estados Unidos) EU trade chief Cecilia Malmström has agreed to start a World Trade Organization consultation on the issue of Colombian anti-dumping duties on fries from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders told POLITICO today. The consultation will be the first stage of formal dispute settlement at the WTO. It gives all sides a chance to discuss the issue behind closed doors and try to find a solution. Should no agreement be reached in this stage, a panel can be established. Earlier efforts to come to terms with Colombia on the issue have not had “any real effects,” Reynders said upon arrival at the meeting of EU trade ministers today, adding that it is “very important” for Belgium to get the Commission to start consultations at the WTO. Dutch Trade Minister Sigrid Kaag told POLITICO: “It’s very important [to act] … because this deals with a sort of contagious element, a precedent case: If they get away with it in this sector … then it can also happen in other sectors. And that’s obviously very concerning.” Last week, the Colombian government announced anti-dumping duties on imports of frozen fries from Beligum, Germany and the Netherlands. The European Commission insisted it had not sat idle. It tweeted: 19 “times we’ve stepped up in the last year — ranging from ministerial meetings with national authorities to formal submissions in the WTO — to support the access of European ‘frites’ to the Colombian market.”

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Belgium raises stakes in Colombian frozen fries dispute Reuters (Reino Unido) Belgium, the self-proclaimed home of potato fries, said on Friday it wanted the European Union to launch legal action against duties that Colombia is planning to impose on imports of the frozen product. A committee of Colombia’s economy ministry has recommended that producers in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands should face anti-dumping tariffs. “You know at the moment we have a real problem with Colombia,” Belgium’s foreign minister Didier Reynders told reporters before a meeting of national ministers responsible for trade in Brussels. Although small in money terms - the EU as a whole exports just 25 million euros ($28.4 million) of frozen fries to Colombia per year - the dispute is big in symbolism for Belgium, which argues it invented the “French” fry. “We export a lot of agricultural products and fries, it’s a very important product in Belgium, as in other European countries,” he said. Reynders said that meetings with Colombian officials had had no effect and that Belgium was asking the EU to seek consultations at the World Trade Organization, the first step in any dispute. If such consultations fail to produce a solution within 60 days, the complainant can then ask for an WTO panel to adjudicate. An EU diplomat said that Germany and the Netherlands were supporting the Belgian call. Austria, which holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, said it would also support Belgium. “Europe will defend European fries,” EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said, adding that EU officials had met Colombian counterparts for the past two years to express concerns over the anti-dumping plans.

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She said that Brussels would wait for the formal announcement that duties would be set before assessing whether to launch a WTO challenge.

II. NEGOCIAÇÕES REGIONAIS E BILATERAIS Canciller uruguayo: acuerdo entre Mercosur y la UE debería firmarse antes de mayo Sputnik News (Rússia) El acuerdo comercial que negocian el Mercado Común del Sur (Mercosur) y la Unión Europea (UE) debería firmarse a más tardar en mayo de 2019, antes de que cambien las autoridades de la Comisión Europea, dijo a Sputnik el ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Uruguay, Rodolfo Nin Novoa. Si bien admitió que aún no se sabe exactamente cuándo podrá cerrarse el acuerdo, el canciller sostuvo: "Tiene que ser antes de que cambie la Comisión Europea [órgano ejecutivo de la UE], que es en mayo, hay elecciones ahí". El ministro habló con Sputnik al término de un acto por los 100 años del fin de la Primera Guerra Mundial (1914-1918), realizado en la Plaza Independencia de Montevideo. Nin Novoa, el presidente Tabaré Vázquez y el ministro de Economía, Danilo Astori, admitieron días atrás las dificultades para concretar el acuerdo entre ambos bloques. No obstante, el canciller dijo a Sputnik este viernes que "todavía hay chances" de que se firme. "Estamos enviando mañana [el 10 de noviembre] a Bruselas a los negociadores de los cuatro países [Argentina, Uruguay, Brasil y Paraguay], y la semana que viene hay una reunión de cancilleres con los comisarios de Comercio, Agricultura, y parte de la Comisión Europea para ver si podemos, en función de los adelantos que hagan los negociadores, aproximarnos al cierre definitivo", añadió Nin Novoa.

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La semana pasada, algunos europarlamentarios de visita en Argentina indicaron que esperan que el acuerdo se cierre antes de las elecciones europeas de mayo o incluso antes, y manejaron la posibilidad de que se haga en la cumbre del Grupo de los 20 (G20) países industrializados y emergentes que tendrá lugar el 30 de noviembre y el 1 de diciembre en Buenos Aires. Las negociaciones entre el Mercosur y la UE comenzaron hace casi 20 años y tuvieron varios altibajos; se esperaba que el tratado estuviera cerrado a finales de 2017, pero las conversaciones se extendieron debido a la resistencia de los sectores agrícolas de algunos países europeos.

III. OUTROS U.S. Crop Giants are Doing More Brazil Deals Thanks to Trade War Bloomberg (Estados Unidos) Some of the most iconic names in U.S. agriculture just agreed to do more business with China. But it’s coming at the expense of American farmers as the companies agree to ship more soybeans from Brazil amid Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing. Cargill Inc., the biggest privately-held U.S. company, as well as its century-old rivals Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. and Bunge Ltd., among others, inked soybean deals with China’s state-owned grain buyer this week, the Beijing-based company said on its official wechat account. Under the agreement, the crop will be sourced from South American countries including Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. China slapped a retaliatory 25 percent tariff on American-grown supplies of the oilseed in July. This week’s agreement shows how the largest agricultural trading houses are working through the trade war. It also reflects the measures that China, the largest global soy importer, is willing to take to avoid U.S. beans.

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It’s all adding up to bad news for American farmers. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report showed domestic inventories will be bigger than projected last month as it cut its outlook for exports. While that’s “incrementally negative for U.S. farmers” and the companies that sell them equipment, it’s “generally positive” for the processors like Cargill and ADM, Ann Duignan, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, wrote in a report Thursday. Cargill

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