Strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture

Launched in January 2024, the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of Agriculture brought together the leading players in the agri-food chain (farmers, cooperatives, companies, NGOs, civil society representatives, financial institutions and universities) to define a shared vision for agriculture in the EU. Its final report, published on September 4, 2024, contains recommendations in favour of reciprocity of standards in agricultural trade.

The conclusions of the strategic dialogue recommend that the European Commission “ensure greater coherence between its trade and sustainability policy. This will require the EU to rethink how it approaches market access for exports and imports in its trade policies, considering all positive and negative externalities that agri-food trade may have on environmental sustainability, competitiveness of EU producers, animal welfare, and labour standards, as well as on price and choice for the consumer. The overall ambition should be to create a stronger alignment of imports with EU food and farming standards, taking into account as far as possible socio-cultural, economic, geographic, climatic and regulatory contexts of trading partners as well as the expectations of EU consumers with regard to standards”.