The head negotiator of the European Commission for the trade agreement with the United States, Ignacio Garcia Bercero, said they were trying to reduce the requirements on fruit and vegetables to avoid the absurd situations caused by the slowness of authorizations by the United States. There are some extremely slow authorization processes that can last up to twelve years, as in the case of an application for exports of apricots requested by Spain in 2002 and that still hasn’t been resolved, lamented García Bercero during an appearance in Valencia to explain the agreement and its impact on Spain and Valencia.
According to the chief negotiator, the main problem in the negotiations regarding the food industry is the inspection of products because the United States requires it to be carried out by its own inspectors. He also stated they were considering a trust system to speed up these processes.
Garcia Bercero said that neither the European Union nor the United States would accept a modification of the legislation on food safety, environment, consumer protection, data privacy, and that the goal was to apply these laws with minor trade barriers.
Source: agroinformacion.com