U.S.-EU Trade Talks Shafted Amid Government Shutdown

Oct 07, 2013

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

The partial U.S. government shutdown is heading into week two, with no end in sight. The shutdown has led to the cancelation of the second round of U.S.-EU trade talks. United States trade representatives were to arrive in Brussels Monday, with talks scheduled to last a week.

Partial shutdown was prompted last week after Congress failed to reach a deal on the budget. It is an ongoing battle between Democrats and Republicans. Time is ticking as an agreement needs to be reached by Oct. 17, the date when the U.S. is due to default on its debt repayments.

While the trade talks are wide-ranging, the cancelation is especially a big blow for the U.S. agriculture sector, which is faced with prolonged market access to the EU and burdened with no sign of a renewed Farm Bill.

EU’s commission trade chair Karel de Gucht released a statement calling the situation “unfortunate,” but said the cancellation will not distract from the aim of reaching a deal between the EU and the U.S. There are no signs of when the trade talks will be rescheduled.

Video: A new era in biostimulants and bionutritionals

In response to the growing need for efficient, effective biosolutions, HGS BioScience continues to expand its footprint in the bionutritional and biostimulant market with the acquisition of NutriAg, Ltd. The Paine Schwartz Partners-backed HGS BioScience is a global leader in humic and fulvic acid products. Toronto-based NutriAg is an innovator in bionutritional technologies with a deep R&D engine. North American growers and retailers will benefit from:

• Solutions across the biostimulant spectrum - including humics, fulvics, bionutritionals, carbohydrate chelation, amino acids, plant and seaweed extracts, and microbial technologies.
• A portfolio and R&D pipeline of science-backed solutions proven to drive crop productivity and farm profitability.
• Actionable nutrient insights and recommendations based on data specific to their farm and cropping goals with the NutriAnalytics platform