EU Commissioner Cioloş meets U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dacian Cioloș had a meeting with the United States' Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today in Brussels. The meeting was an occasion to discuss respective agricultural policies and the challenges ahead.
After the meeting, Commissioner Cioloș stated :
"We have had a deep and very comprehensive discussion about our relationship in the field of agriculture, the agri-food sector. After the meeting organized yesterday with all Ministers of Agriculture from all European Member States and Secretary Vilsack, today we went more into details about how to improve our knowledge, our understanding about our forms of agriculture. The US just finalized a new Farm Bill and in the EU we have just finalised the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. We concluded today that we should do more in order to have a better understanding about the different way we do the same things. How we deal with the same challenges, the same priorities in terms of food security in our countries and also all across the world, in terms of sustainability of agriculture, in terms of the strong development of our rural areas. Of course in this framework we talked about our trade relations. Agriculture and the agri-food sector are important parts of the TTIP, but I am convinced now after these discussions that we cannot do these negotiations of TTIP without having a better understanding of the realities and if we do this, then it will be easier then to solve some of the challenges ahead of us in these negotiations. We are very committed to be involved in this process of negotiations and to do this in the interests of our consumers in Europe, in the US and of course in the interests of our farmers and of the development of our economic relationship".
