Environmental and health-related standards influencing the competitiveness of EU agriculture
The European Commission, DG VI, has published an invitation to tender concerning a comparison of environmental and health-related standards influencing the competitiveness of EU agriculture in relation to the main competitors in the world market. Standards established by environmental or health-related policies impose adjustment requirements on farmers which can sometimes be accompanied by serious costs. As long as all producers of a certain product are subject to the same legal constraints, these do not affect competition among them. Concerns about the competition effects of diverging environmental and health-related standards have been raised in several instances. Some EU Member States point out that international trade must respect EU standards. In this context the Directorate-General for Agriculture intends to carry out a study on comparison of environmental and health-related standards influencing the relative competitiveness of EU agriculture vis-à-vis main competitors in the world market. Further information may be found in the tender documents, available from the Commission. Tender documents can be obtained from: European Commission DG VI - Agriculture Mr. Saverio Torcasio 200 rue de la Loi (L-130 5/13) B-1049 Brussels Tel. +32-2-2953440; Fax +32-2-2958453 Completed tenders should be sent to the same address.