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Perdue working to reset trade, technology bans with EU

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue is looking to reset the trade relationship between the US and the European Union.

In Brussels this week Perdue said they need to reconcile the $10 -$12 billion trade deficit in weeks, not months.

“The EU has probably twice as many consumers with two-thirds of the arable land. We believe that some of the constraints that are here we would like to have reconciled and resolved.”

Perdue says those restrictions include the EU’s partial or complete bans on genetically modified foods and US beef raised with hormones.

Perdue says the EU is also hurting its own farmers by restricting the use of safe new technologies to boost production.

“Their producers are going to be at a huge disadvantage if they choose to have a technology free zone including genetic engineering in animals and non-transgenic.”

Perdue told European media network EURACTIV that EU policymakers are willing to make decisions based on sound science. But he said there was “some anxiety regarding the ability to counteract some of the NGOs who are spreading fear regarding hazard-based rather than risk-based approach.”

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