No need to audit our meat, says Brazil's EU ambassador as trade dispute escalates

Brazil’s EU ambassador, Pedro Miguel da Costa e Silva, told Euronews on Friday that an inspection of Brazilian meat was unnecessary, and signalled that “all options are on the table” for Brazil to respond if the EU ban remains in place.

The European Commission’s decision came into force this week, after Brazil was removed from a list of countries complying with EU food safety rules over its use of antibiotics to stimulate animal growth.

The EU ban prompted anger from the Brazilian government on Thursday, which threatened to adopt countermeasures.

"There wasn't a need for an audit, not for poultry, not for honey, not bovine meat, because no audits were conducted for the other countries," da Costa e Silva said. "We have provided sufficient guarantees."

An EU audit of Brazilian poultry and honey is ongoing, but the Commission said that Brasília had not provided guarantees that would allow for an audit of its beef.

The ambassador added that while Brazil will continue discussing the issue with the Commission "all options were on the table” if the imports did not resume.

The Commission pushed back on Friday against Brasília's accusation of unfair treatment, with the Commission's deputy Chief spokesperson Olof Gill saying: “Our approach is non-discriminatory, and we've given our partners sufficient time and all the information they need to adjust."

The dispute comes as a free trade deal between Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay — and the EU provisionally came into force in May, despite strong opposition from EU farmers, who fear that Latin American products that do not comply with the bloc’s phytosanitary and food safety standards will be dumped in Europe.

"Food safety rules are a matter of the highest priority for EU citizens," Gill added. "These rules have been well known for a long time, with third countries having been informed going back many years."

The EU introduced new rules to combat antimicrobial resistance in 2018, which have been applied to EU producers since 2022 and to foreign importers since Thursday.