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The German Minister of Food and Agriculture, Julia Klöckner, announced on 30/09/2019 a plan to adopt voluntary food labelling using the Nutri-Score system. In a public survey in Germany, 57% of the 1600 respondents favoured the French Nutri-Score labelling over three other nutrition labelling schemes. The Nutri-Score aims to inform consumers clearly about the nutritional value of the product through a range of 5 colours, from green (foods low in sugar, salt or fat) through orange to red to indicate the high levels of these nutrients. The first products with this label could appear in German stores in 2020. Minister Klöckner would like to promote uniform labelling with the Nutri-Score system across the EU. Now this voluntary labelling system is used in FR, PT and BE. Among large food companies (Nestlé, for example), uses this system. On the other hand, some Member States, such as Italy and the Czech Republic, point out that this food labelling scheme disqualifies some traditional foods that are guaranteed traditional specialties (TSG) or have an EU protected geographical indication (PGI). The Commission has not yet submitted a report with recommendations on nutrition labelling across the EU, the report was due to be published in July 2019.
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Danish farmers protested last week against the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court, according to which the rules on the granting of building permits and the approval of certain agricultural activities characterized by high nitrogen emissions violate European Union law. As a result of this decision, nearly 18,000 projects have been stopped, and the Court also considers that the Danish government should take steps to reduce pollution. Most of the nitrogen emissions come from farms, so some Danish MPs have proposed to reduce nitrogen emissions by halving Denmark's total livestock population, which would mean slaughtering up to 6 million pigs and 50 million chickens.
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According to a member of the board of the agrochemical company Bayer, which produces, inter alia, controversial Roundup herbicide, the company will consider legal action in case the license for the use of the substance glyphosate is not renewed for the period after 2022.

The United States announced last week their plans to impose tariffs on Airbus and European Union agricultural and industrial production. According to the US, the introduction of customs duties is a response to the illegal subsidization of the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus. Customs duties are expected to come into force on 18/10/2019 (10% tariff on Airbus aircraft and 25% duty on various European agricultural and industrial goods). Customs duties should be newly imposed on agricultural products such as cheese, dairy products, Irish whiskey, spirits, French wines, sweeteners, coffee, biscuits, olives and pork.
More information is available here.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson sent a compromise draft agreement on the withdrawal of Great Britain from the EU to the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker. In a letter dated 02/10/2019, Boris Johnson is setting up a regulatory zone for the whole of Ireland, including all goods, including agri-food commodities. Northern Ireland should be part of the UK customs territory, not the EU customs territory. Johnson has promised that the UK will leave the EU customs union so that it can immediately take control of its own trade policy, but without controls at or near the border in Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom is ready to withdraw from the EU, even without an agreement, as of 31/10/2019.
More information is available here and here.