In this new study, the Veblen Institute scrutinizes the mirror measure on antibiotic growth promoters.

Since January 1, 2006, the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock farming has been banned in the EU. To combat antibiotic resistance on the one hand and unfair competition for European livestock farmers on the other, the EU extended this ban to third-country operators exporting animals or products of animal origin to the EU in EU regulation EU 2019/6.

Antibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria to resist antibiotics. This phenomenon results from the irrational use of antibiotics, which leads to bacterial resistance through mechanisms transmitted to humans and animals via the environment or food.

On a global scale

• 1.2 million people worldwide already die each year from infections caused by microbial agents resistant to all current antibiotics.
• 24.1 million people are driven into extreme poverty, mainly in developing countries.
• 10 million lives threatened by 2050.

Every year, the EU imports several hundred thousand tonnes of meat from animals treated with growth-promoting antibiotics. While this practice has been banned in the EU since 2006, this is not the case in the main meat-producing and exporting countries to the EU (e.g. Brazil, Ukraine and Thailand). These imports are also encouraged by free-trade agreements. This is the case, for example, with the agreement with the MERCOSUR countries, which provides for an additional annual zero-duty import quota of 180,000 tonnes for South American poultry, mainly from Brazil.

The “veterinary medicinal products” mirror measure adopted in Regulation 2019/6 has loopholes and is still far from being effective:

• Firstly, it only concerns antibiotics, which are considered medicinal products and not additives. It covers only a tiny proportion of the uses made by producers in third countries who export their meat to the EU.

• In 2024, it has still not been implemented. The first delegated regulation supposed to define the implementation conditions was published on February 27, 2023 (although it should have been adopted before January 28, 2022). This regulation requires imported animal products to be accompanied by an official certificate of compliance with the ban laid down in Regulation 2019/6. These products must also come from a third country or region of a third country on a list of approved third countries. The regulation leaves it to subsequent implementing acts to specify these two conditions. The first implementing act (published only on January 29, 2024) will require third-country operators to complete a self-declaration attesting that the meat complies with the ban laid down in European regulations. This obligation will not come into force until September 3, 2026. And it has yet to be supplemented by an additional implementing act defining the list of third countries authorized to export their animal products to the European Union.

• Finally, the effective implementation of the mirror measure is hampered by inadequate controls and the absence of protective measures in the event of shortcomings being identified, as demonstrated by the precedent set by the growth hormone industry. The European Commission conducted several audits of the Canadian hormone-free beef industry, parallel with the CETA trade negotiations. The 2019 audit revealed serious “shortcomings” in the control of cattle traceability. It concluded that the current system “cannot guarantee that only fully compliant establishments remain on the list of establishments authorized to export to the EU”. Similar shortcomings had already been identified in 2014 and 2022. However, the Commission did not decide to require Canada to take corrective action.

This is why the Veblen Institute proposes three proposals for European meat imports guaranteed to be “growth antibiotic free”.

PROPOSAL N°1 - A mirror measure covering all uses of antibiotics: veterinary medicines AND animal feed additives.

PROPOSAL N°2 - The structuring of “0 antibiotic growth promoters” in third countries, directly controlled by the European Commission.

PROPOSAL N°3 - In the event of shortcomings identified during an audit, systematic suspension of imports until corrective measures have been implemented by the third country concerned.