Tag: level playing field

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An uncommon CAP?

The European Court of Auditors has released an Opinion on the draft CAP and CMO Regulations proposed by the Commission. It is a welcome analysis as it moves the discussion on the CAP in the next programming period 2028-2034 beyond the budget and governance issues that have dominated the debate to date, and provides an analytical examination of the changes proposed by the Commission for the CAP interventions themselves. There are many useful insights in the Opinion.

The one interpretation that I found puzzling was the ECA’s discussion of crisis payments for farmers (Article 38 of the Fund proposal). Box 5 in the Opinion appears to suggest that, in the event of natural disasters, access to exceptional measures funded by the EU Facility would only take effect after crisis payments to farmers had been established. My reading of Article 34(9) suggests that it excludes financing crisis payments to farmers in the event of natural disasters by the EU Facility, although why that should be the case is not explained or justified, but it does not require such payments before Member States can seek additional aid from this Facility.… Read the rest

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Level playing field provisions in the EU-UK TCA

My previous post discussed the general background to the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and specifically its provisions on tariffs and non-tariff barriers.  An innovative part of the Agreement concerns what are called ‘level playing field’ provisions in various areas including state aids, taxation, competition policy, labour standards, and environmental protection and climate change.

By demanding that the Agreement address these issues, the EU wanted to avoid a situation where the UK could use government subsidies, a more beneficial tax regime or more lenient regulatory standards to give its producers an advantage in competing with EU producers in the tariff-free free trade area which might be seen as unfair.

The Agreement includes reciprocal commitments not to reduce the level of environmental or climate protection or fail to enforce laws in a manner that affects trade or investment (the so-called ‘non-regression’ clause). Both sides have the right, in certain circumstances, and subject to arbitration, to take countermeasures if they believe they are being damaged by measures taken (or not taken!)… Read the rest

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Is a level playing field an argument for continued support to UK agriculture after Brexit?

We are pleased to publish this guest post by David Blandford (Penn State University) and Berkeley Hill (Imperial College London).

The President of the National Farmers Union (NFU) of England and Wales told the Food Manufacture Group’s Business Leaders’ Forum (Feb 14, 2017) that the NFU is currently actively lobbying the UK government to ensure that British farmers are not disadvantaged with respect to their main competitors in Europe following Brexit. The fear seems to be that cuts in the £3 billion of direct aid, which seem highly likely when Britain leaves the EU and its CAP, will result in a non-level playing field in which UK farmers are put at a competitive disadvantage. Thus, there will be a claim for government support to address the issue. This claim is of obvious importance to the shape of future national agricultural policy in the UK and should therefore be examined closely.… Read the rest