Trade agreements can help increase sales and support jobs in the agri-food sector of the European Union (EU), a new study released on Monday shows. Thanks to the deals, the EU set a new record in agri-food exports in 2016 with a total of €130.7 billion.
Carried out on behalf of the European Commission by the independent consultancy, Copenhagen Economics, the study looked at the impact on exports of agri-food products of the three trade agreements: the Association Agreement with Mexico, the free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea and the trade agreements with Switzerland.
The study found that trade agreements have helped to boost EU agricultural exports and have supported jobs in the agri-food sector and other sectors of the economy.
"These three agreements alone have increased EU agri-food exports by more than 1 billion euros and have raised value-added in the agri-food sector by 600 million euros. Just as importantly, this increase in exports has supported thousands of jobs in total across the EU, most of which are in the agri-food sector, including in primary agriculture," said Phil Hogan, EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development.
source: news.xinhuanet.com, foodnavigator.com
