Efecto de las crisis sanitarias y del rediseño de políticas comunitarias sobre la estructura productiva del sector vacuno de carne en la Unión Europea

Resumen

The health events in the early nineties, in particular BSE and food crises, forced to reform EU policies to meet the demands of protecting the health and welfare demanded by citizens, establishing the general principles of food security and agricultural production model in EU, inspired by the precautionary principle, to restore and maintain consumer confidence in EU food control systems, maintaining the internal market and social and economic development. Compliance with the conditions determining European policies is extra economic costs to farms that hinder their international market position against competitors who are not imposed. The cost of these guarantees could be recovered in part on whether consumers accept the higher price. However, although the citizen surveys is willing to pay higher prices at the time of purchasing the majority decides on cheaper food, so do not recover the costs of the beef by the European model of agricultural production. The production structure in the EU beef has been so affected in the last twenty years, after the successive CAP reforms and the policy of consumer protection, which cannot meet demand and to be forced to import to meet domestic consumption. Health problems have not caused long-term disruptions in the global market because over time the supply is balanced with demand. The reduction of supply in the EU, caused by production difficulties and decrease of beef available for export, has led to the production has increased in third countries, mainly from Mercosur, to fill the position left by the EU. So, basically, the largest affected, by the trade implications by reducing the generation of income on their farms, were the producers. In their commercial relations with third countries, the European Community is aware of the sensitivity to food risks and demands of the EU population. Over the last decade has been applied, or has attempted to apply, the principles of food security in their international trade agreements. Difficulties arise when the design and strategy for food security policies in other countries is not conditioned by the same factors, and in many cases the measures imposed by EU policies on agriculture and consumer protection are interpreted as protectionist measures that only seek to defend the EU market. The Community maintains that the protection of consumers, which forces the Treaty, justifies such obstacles to liberalism, even though the exporting countries maintain the idea that it is only measures to protect EU agriculture limited by the international competition.