Reading Time: 2 minutes German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged EU leaders on Thursday to back a contentious free trade pact with South American bloc Mercosur but French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron insisted it was still not ready.
Germany, Spain urge EU to back Mercosur trade pact, but France resists
Safeguards leave ‘cars for cows’ deal in peril
Reading Time: 2 minutes EU lawmakers backed tighter controls on imports of agricultural products under a potential trade agreement with the South American trade bloc Mercosur, as Brussels tries to get sceptics on board to sign the EU’s largest-ever trade accord.
Relief as new China ruling lowers EU pork tariffs
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Reading Time: 3 minutes China on Tuesday sharply reduced tariffs on European Union pork imports worth over $2 billion in the final ruling of an anti-dumping investigation seen as a response to the bloc’s duties on Chinese electric vehicles.
EU vets in Barcelona for swine fever outbreak as cases rise to nine
Reading Time: 2 minutes A task force of EU vets specializing in epidemics began work in Barcelona on Tuesday to help contain an African swine fever outbreak as Spain said the number of wild boars found infected with the virus rose to nine.
Expana lifts EU cereal forecasts, maize exceeds expectations
Reading Time: < 1 minute Expana has raised its monthly grain production forecast for European Union crops for the 2025/26 season, projecting soft wheat output will hit a record high and barley a 17-year high.
Record EU soft wheat harvest expected this year
Reading Time: 2 minutes This year’s European Union soft wheat crop is expected to have reached a record high.
Trump’s higher tariffs hit major US trading partners, sparking defiance and concern
Higher tariffs likely to impact global supply chains and inflation
Reading Time: 4 minutes U.S. President Donald Trump's higher tariffs on imports from dozens of countries kicked in on Thursday, raising the average U.S. import duty to its highest in a century and leaving major trade partners such as Switzerland, Brazil and India hurriedly searching for a better deal.
Europe’s illegal pesticide trade surges as farmers cut costs
At least 14 per cent of pesticides used on EU fields today are illegal
Reading Time: 5 minutes As the cost of spraying crops with pesticides becomes increasingly expensive, farmers in Greece's agricultural heartland have turned to a cheaper alternative: liquids in unlabeled plastic bottles smuggled over land and sea.
EU farmers raise alarm over Mercosur, Ukraine trade deals
Comments come ahead of visit by Brazil’s Lula
Reading Time: 2 minutes French and Spanish farmers warned on Wednesday that a flood of imports under planned European Union trade agreements with South American bloc Mercosur and Ukraine risked severely undermining European agriculture.
Global rapeseed/canola production dips in April report
USDA lowers output for EU, India
Reading Time: < 1 minute World production of rapeseed/canola for 2024/25 was trimmed by almost 0.53 per cent on April 10, when the United States Department of Agriculture released its World Agricultural Production report.
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
