A decision in Brussels could hand JBS control of EU meat quotas

Just days before the Mercosur-EU trade agreement took effect on Friday, the European Commission adopted an implementing act that rewrites the mechanics of beef export quotas. Last week, the commission decided that exporting countries may now allocate volumes among their own companies and issue the certificates required to access preferential tariffs.

EU beef imports are capped at 99,000 tonnes and poultry at 180,000 tonnes — marginal figures relative to European production. But with the new commission’s decision, European importers no longer choose their suppliers freely — they depend on whichever operators their counterparts abroad designate.