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The Lithuanian Government is completing work on the so-called trade tax, which should apply to all sellers who make goods available to consumers on the Lithuanian market. An additional 1% tax should apply to any retailer, realtor, or pharmacy that has a monthly turnover of more than € 2 million (or an annual turnover of more than € 24 million). The law should be adopted in mid-December 2019 and should enter into force next year.
More information is available here.

In its statement of 20/11/2019, EuroCommerce, a company representing retailers in the EU, warned against introducing trade taxes that could lead to the termination of a number of retailers. According to EuroCommerce, Member States are introducing trade taxes based on the trader's turnover; following Hungary, Poland (with the introduction now pending by the European institutions) and Slovakia will newly introduce the tax in Lithuania. According to the CEO of EuroCommerce, however, merchants - especially food traders - work with very low average margins ranging from 1 to 3%, so increasing trade taxes could either lead to the need to negotiate new prices from suppliers or increase final prices for consumers which could also jeopardize the existence of a number of retailers.

The Food Supply Chain Initiative (SCI) confirmed the end of its activities by the end of 2019. SCI started its activities in 2013 at the instigation of European food industry associations (FoodDrinkEurope, AIM), the retail sector (EuroCommerce, EuroCoop, European Retail Round Table ERRT & Independent Retail Europe) and representatives of agricultural traders (CELCAA) to ensure fair access along the food supply chain. Over 1200 companies have joined the SCI Code of Practice. However, after the new Unfair Commercial Practices Directive has been approved, the focus will be on the implementation of the Directive, so the initiative decided to end its activities after six years. The Code will continue to apply, and organizations will continue to be able to use it on a voluntary basis. In addition, a merger of two SCI members representing the retail sector in more than 30 countries, EuroCommerce and ERRT, was announced in early November. After the merger, the organizations will be united under the name EuroCommerce.

Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan welcomed the conclusion of an agreement on the recognition of geographical indications (Gl's) between the EU and China on 06/11/2019 in Beijing. Both parties will recognize 100 high quality products of the other party from the moment the Agreement enters into force, and an additional 175 product markings over the next 4 years. There are 3 products on the product list that will not be protected from the first day of the agreement. The name Feta will be protected only 8 years after the entry into force of the agreement, Asiago in 6 years, and Pecorino Romano in 3 years. The agreement must now be approved by the EU Council and the European Parliament. The Member States ES, GR, DE, FR and CZ were satisfied with the outcome of the agreement; at the same time, IT called for measures to better promote the export of EU agricultural and food products to the Chinese market.

On 18/11/2019, the Polish Minister of Agriculture, Jan Ardanowski, expressed concern about the large exports of Ukrainian commodities and food products to the European Union, specifically mentioning the export of maize - up to 60% of the total Ukrainian exports of maize are destined for the Polish market. Given the different climatic conditions, the high quality of the soil in Ukraine and the cheap manpower in Ukraine, Ukrainian maize is significantly cheaper, Polish maize production is uncompetitive on the domestic market. LV, HU and RO also joined the concerns of the Polish Minister, focusing not only on the export of cereals but also honey and chicken. The Polish Minister asked the Commission to check whether Ukrainian farmers are using active substances that are banned in the EU, as well as to check the origin of foodstuffs - in order to ascertain whether the Ukrainian production actually originated in Ukraine and not, for example, Russia or China. However, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan sees no reason to intervene, according to him, maize imports into the PL are just over 1% of total EU imports, and in the current year Polish imports are less than 30,000 tonnes.
More information is available here.