Copa President Martin Merrild said he questions why there are so many protests in the EU regarding the TTIP trade deal with the United States.
Mr Merrild, President of the EU farming co-operative Copa, met with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and highlighted trade deals with China as a reason why EU dairy and pork markets were showing signs of recovery.
"In the free trade talks with the USA (TTIP), we see both opportunities and challenges on both sides of the Atlantic.
"I question why there are so many protests on this in the EU when we do not know what would be in a potential deal.
"For us, it's important to lift non-trade barriers to trade as we see three-quarters of the gains to be had here."
Fragile state
Merrild said EU dairy and pork markets remain in a fragile state and will take time for producers to recover their losses after 'such unprecedented crisis.'
"Reasons for the recovery are partly because demand has picked up in China and the Commission has been successful in finding new export markets.
"There are also free trade agreements with Japan, Mexico, Indonesia that could benefit the EU market substantially.
"We urge the EU to strike a free trade deal with Japan in the next 6 months, especially as it’s our second biggest export market for pork."
"EU dairy producers for example face big obstacles when trying to market Grade A milk products in the US which effectively stop our exports from entering the USA.
"The same situation applies for our fruit and vegetable exports."
Strong co-operatives
Cogeca President Thomas Magnusson said the EU had seen a bad situation regarding agricultural markets fueled by imbalances.
He highlighted the importance for strong co-operatives.
But he warned that Copa & Cogeca have serious concerns about a potential free trade deal with the Latin American trade bloc Mercosur, saying it risks having a catastrophic impact especially on the EU beef and poultry sector.
The Commissioner promised to take Copa & Cogeca concerns into account, saying that a cumulative impact assessment on trade is set to be released later in Autumn.
What is TTIP?
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a deal being negotiated between the European Union and US, is in many ways, a fairly boring and straightforward trade agreement.
Commonly known as TTIP (pronounced t-tip), deliberations over the deal have been going on for years, with the first official round of talks taking place in 2013.
It is hoped that whatever the agreement eventually looks like, it will result in increased trade and prosperity for those on both sides of the Atlantic.
Critics say if the trade deals are implemented, TTIP risks weakening European laws that protect health and the environment.
