The President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker met with US President Donald Trump in the White House on 25^th July.

The meeting resulted in a joint statement, which is welcome in the context of steel and aluminium tariff issues and retaliatory tariffs.

The joint statement agreed that while future co-operation on trade will not include agriculture as such, the EU and US would work to increase trade in soyabeans.

Compared to July 2017, EU imports of soyabeans from the US are currently up by 283% at 360,000 tonnes (equivalent of 37% of total EU imports, compared to 9% in July 2017). The US is now supplying 13% of EU soyameal imports compared to 0.3% in July 2017.

Eamonn Farrell

Agri Food Policy Executive