Agroaldea
The deputies have asked the Government to promote legal changes and more border surveillance before the community institutions.
Yesterday the Congress of Deputies requested a “upward revision” of the “entry prices” that tax tomatoes that arrive from Morocco to the European Union (EU), to stop the losses caused by these imports to Spanish farmers.
The Agriculture Commission, Food and Environment Congress approved, unanimously, a non-legislative proposition of UPyD, Transacted with the PP and the PSOE, in which they demand greater control of Moroccan tomato shipments.
The deputies have asked the Government to promote legal changes and more border surveillance before the community institutions to avoid “breaches” of the agreements.
The new UPyD Agriculture spokesperson in Congress, the Valencian Julio Lleonart, has stressed that the “lack of surveillance” has generated “damages” to the community coffers, for not charging certain tariffs, and to Spanish farmers for “lost profits”, in the face of competition from vegetables that arrive from the Maghreb country at an excessively low price.
Congress has referred especially to the mechanism of “entry price”, according to which when tomato shipments arrive below a certain price, a tax is applied.
The parliamentary committee has defended an upward revision of said price, since the conditions of crop production have changed.
As long as this change does not occur, The deputies have requested a differentiated tax for tomatoes “smooth round” and another for the variety “cherry”, since production costs diverge.
MPs have called on the Government to raise with the EU institutions the need for detailed data on customs duties paid.
Congress has advocated, In addition, for continuing with the “initiatives” and alliances” that have allowed us to improve the entry price regime for fruits and vegetables.
They have also asked “complete information” to study whether agreements such as the Association agreement between the EU and Morocco are breached only in this case or in other commercial areas.
Lleonart has insisted on the massive increase in Moroccan sales, facing the reduction of Spanish exports.
The Almería PP deputy Jesús Caicedo has trusted that this initiative will contribute to solving an important problem for the fruit and vegetable sector..
On the part of the PSOE, Consuelo Rumí from Almería has highlighted the “unfair competition” of the Moroccan tomato that is sold at a low price, compared to Spanish productions with high “labor and quality standards”.
The spokesperson for the Plural Left, Alvaro Sanz, has criticized that Morocco sends tomatoes from the “occupied sahrawi territories” contravening international standards.