Dcoop believes that a tariff war would harm the entire food chain

Until more details, the announcement of the imposition of 20 % tariffs by the United States on the European Union means that agri-food products will become more expensive, which will end up being passed on to customers, and it remains to be seen how this will affect consumption.

The increase in food prices is not good news for the US citizen, a country where not much or enough food is produced. This is the case of olive oil, where this market consumes about 400,000t and only produces 10,000t. Imposing tariffs equally on the European Union puts all its producer countries (Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece) on an equal level. We hope that this 20% price increase will mean the smallest possible fall in US consumption from the current low levels of oil.

It remains to be seen what happens with wine, whether it stays at 20% or goes up to 200%, as President Donald Trump announced a few days ago.

Regarding table olives, Spain was already expelled in practice from the black olive market, with a tariff that is still in force, despite the favourable rulings of the World Trade Organisation, without having been able to revoke it so far.

This is precisely the concern that we are expressing, that our (European and Spanish) administrations are not defending our interests. The European Union must respond to this new situation forcefully and defend the interests of all European producers. And it must not give in to the temptation to divide itself according to the interests of each country or according to which product. We have had enough of the agri-food sector being the paymaster of trade agreements in which the interests of others, such as the steel and car industries, are given priority.

When situations like this impact on commercial transactions, in the end it affects the whole market, because the products that now find it more difficult to sell in the United States will end up going elsewhere, leading to greater competition and lower prices. On the other hand, operators will turn to supplier countries with lower prices: to sell in the USA, European foodstuffs are now worth 20% more.

Dcoop exports an average of more than 200 million euros a year to the United States, mostly oil and some wine and table olives.

As for the tariffs announced for other countries with similar interests to Spain, the situation is as follows: European Union 20%, Syria 41%, Morocco 10%, Egypt 10%, Brazil 10%, South Africa 30%, United Kingdom 1%, Tunisia 28%, Argentina 10%, Turkey 10%, Australia 10% and Chile 10%.