The former Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbu, declared on Wednesday that if he continues to hold this position, then no product from the Mercosur area will enter our country until it has been checked in the laboratories in Romania.
The provisional trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) has been provisionally applied since May 1, and will come into full force after the European Parliament, which is awaiting an opinion from the European Court of Justice, gives its opinion.
“Romania requested another very important point, that the companies that import from the Mercosur area, each state can license these companies. Why do I say this? Because the biggest danger is that certain companies are approved at the level of the European Commission to bring these products. The biggest danger is that, once they enter the territory of a state in the European Union, that product becomes European”said Florin Barbu at the conference “Diplomacy in agribusiness. Challenges and opportunities in a changing global context”, organized by AgroTV, in partnership with Profit.ro.
He explained that consumers must be well informed in this regard.
“We requested that each state import agri-food products from the Mercosur area, through licenses given by each state, and that state that imported these agri-food products consume them on the territory of the state where this was done, trade so as not to affect other producers and processors from other countries in the European Union”explained the former PSD Minister of Agriculture.
Florin Barbu added that he requested some common sense guarantees, considering that pesticides, hormones are used in Mercosur, and the chickens are raised with antibiotics.
“We cannot raise chickens with antibiotics. We cannot raise beef cows using hormones. We are not allowed to use category 1 pesticides in the plant sector in Romania. These pesticides are used in the Mercosur area. I asked for some common sense guarantees, because I am not against free trade, but we have to protect ourselves”, pointed out Florin Barbu.
He also reported what he will do if he returns to the Ministry of Agriculture.
“If God helps me to return to the Ministry of Agriculture, no product from the Mercosur area will enter, even if it is made intra-community, until that product enters the laboratories in Romania“, Florin Barbu also transmitted.
He explained that the laboratories in Romania are calibrated on those substances transposed in the directives of the European Union.
“We have those kits, those markers only for those products. If other substances are used that are prohibited on Romanian territory, those markers cannot identify those products. And we requested, including from the European Union, support, funding to calibrate these laboratories until this Mercosur agreement is entered into“Florin Barbu also specified.
