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MEPs called on the Commission to take emergency measures to protect the agri-food sector from customs duties that the US decided to impose in October 2019. Customs duties should be between 10 and 25% and should enter into force on 18/03/2020. Customs duties apply to imports worth € 6.8 billion. The call was signed by more than 50 MEPs, referring to the CMO Regulation, which allows for the introduction of emergency measures to address specific problems in agricultural markets, and may last for up to one year. Planned negotiations with Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan to mitigate proposed duties have been cancelled due to the spread of COVID-19.
More information is available here.

The thematic network SKIN - Short supply chain knowledge and innovation network - has created a new interactive online brochure under the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program. The booklet contains links to videos and other interesting resources, summarizes all the main information on technology, regulation, logistics, or skills, as well as information on Knowledge and Innovation Systems in Agriculture (AKIS).
New website with interactive brochure is available here.

European environmental organizations, including Greenpeace (45 organizations in total), have sent a letter to Stelle Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food, calling on the Commission to tighten up the rules on pesticide residues in imported food and to apply the same rules to imports as EU production . The letter from Greenpeace and other organizations is a response to the report of the Corporate Europe Observatory (available here) according to which the Commission tolerates, for example, imports of food with pesticide residues higher than the detectable limit, or pesticide residues banned in the EU.
More information is available here.

The European Commission should publish the Farm to Fork Strategy at the end of March (between 25/03/2020 and 31/03/2020), so the official version of the Strategy is still unknown. However, in the past week, another version of the Farm to Fork Strategy has escaped, which in addition to the original emphasis on sustainability, focus on results, use of low-risk pesticide alternatives, ensuring zero nitrogen and phosphorus pollution contained in fertilizers, enhancing animal welfare, reducing the volume of food waste or promoting the circular economy also newly mentions several key objectives of the Strategy. The first target should be to reduce the environmental footprint of the European food system between 2015 and 2030, the reduction rate is not yet set, the next target should then be set as a percentage reduction in the amount of chemical pesticides used between 2017 and 2030. By 2030, according to one of the other targets, the area of organic farming should be expanded (the rate is again unknown). Furthermore, a percentage target for the reduction of sales of antibiotics used in agriculture should be set; the reference period should be the period 2017-2030. In the case of fertilizers, the Strategy should provide for a "drastic" reduction of nutrient excess in soil in problematic areas. By 2030, the rise in obesity and overweight should be stopped. In terms of digitization, there should be a percentage increase in the EU agricultural area analysed through Copernicus, and a target for digitization in the fisheries and aquaculture sector (by 2030). One of the main objectives of the Strategy should also be to achieve growth in primary producers' incomes and to increase the average income of primary producers compared to other sectors. More information is available here.

The European Commission launched a public consultation on the Farm to Fork Strategy on 17/02/2020, which will be open for a further week until 16/03/2020. More information is available here.

The European Commission, together with the Farm to Fork Strategy, will also publish an Action Plan for the Farm to Fork Strategy. According to the most recent (and still unofficial and unfinished) version of the Action Plan, the Commission could consider: presentation of a new action plan for organic farming (2021-2026); a revision of The Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (2020-2022); a revision of current animal welfare legislation with the possibility of introducing a new animal welfare labelling system; the adoption of a revised EU strategy for sustainable aquaculture; drawing up an EU code and committing industry to responsible and transparent business and marketing behaviour in the food supply chain; revising and strengthening the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive to reduce overuse of packaging materials and enhance the sustainability of packaging materials; harmonization of nutrition labelling on the front of food packaging, country of origin labelling, food production sustainability labelling, or other types of labelling to address excessive consumption of sugar, saturated fats and salt. The Commission should also seek to establish a European Action Plan to combat food fraud (2020-2024). The Commission is also considering a study to assess the economic, environmental and social impacts of the production and consumption of the most consumed foods on the EU market (including, for example, the cost of obesity treatment). of consumed food on the EU market (i.e. including, for example, the cost of treating obesity).