A new trade agreement signed with the United States has brought across-the-board losses for exporters of agricultural products from the 27 EU member states, including Portugal.
This is according to a study from the European Committee of the Regions which says that the majority of products had tariffs of under 15%.
In the case of Portugal, the products that have been hardest hit are wine and bakery products.
Agri-food exports represent about 6% of the total goods that the EU sells across the Atlantic.
And, according to the study, the vast majority of exported products (92.2%) were subject to tariffs of less than 15% until the EU-US agreement came into force on September 1 of last year.
In the case of meat, fish and seeds, the tariffs applied were less than 2%, which means that the agreement that ended the transatlantic trade war significantly increased the customs duties levied on these products, harming their competitiveness.
Assuming the offer remains the same, the services of the European Committee of the Regions are conducting a counterfactual simulation to isolate the impact of the tariffs and estimate the annual losses that would have occurred if the new 15% tariffs had been in effect in 2023.
The study indicates that, in this scenario, European exports of agri-food products would have been up to 23.5% lower than the €27.2Bn observed that year.
In other words, if the trade agreement between the EU and the United States had been in effect in 2023, the value of exports would have been approximately €7Bn lower than what was actually recorded for agri-food goods.
In Portugal, agri-food exports to the United States, which were around €270 million in 2023, would have been 21.6% lower if the new tariffs had been in effect that year, according to calculations by the European Committee of the Regions.
In other words, €58 million less in agri-food products would have been sold that year.
Wine is a product most affected by the new tariffs. Before the agreement, it had an average tariff of 1%, which rose to 15% in September.
In Portugal, counterfactual simulations reveal that, if the tariffs were in effect in 2023, the value exported to the US market would be 6.6% lower than recorded.
Source: Negócios; Credits: Portugal by Wine
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