BRUSSELS, BELGIUM -- The organization that represents the European Union's (EU) compound feed and premix manufacturers expressed concern about the impact proposed tariffs and counter tariffs between the United States and EU could have on the European feed and livestock industry.

Pedro Cordero, president of the European Feed Manufacturers' Federation (FEFAC), on March 12 said the announced US tariffs against EU steel and aluminum products and the counter tariffs covering a wide range of US agricultural products, in particular feed, grain and other feed ingredients, could have a devastating effect.

"The US and EU feed sector organizations have invested for many decades in long-term strategic partnerships contributing effectively to global feed and food security and resilient feed and livestock production systems at regional level," Cordero said. "The proposed new tariffs could undermine these joint efforts and may lead to the disruption of vital feed supply chains, as the EU will continue to rely on essential feed imports -- in particular for protein-rich feed products like soybeans, but also for maize and other feed grains and essential feed additives (such as lysine) where the EU faces a structural deficit."

The EU will impose counter tariffs on €26 billion ($28 billion) worth of US goods beginning next month, the European Commission said on March 12, ramping up a global trade war in response to blanket US tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Cordero encouraged the US and EU administrations "to enter urgently into direct negotiations seeking to remove these tariffs, which will adversely affect resilience and competitiveness of EU livestock production systems."

He recommended that both sides "explore alternative targeted trade agreements, seeking to boost transatlantic trade for agricultural products, in particular for feed grains and essential feed additives, which can easily be doubled from current €4 billion to €8 billion, thus reducing the current US agricultural trade deficit with the EU."

Cordero referred to the "Trump/Juncker" agreement on soy products in 2018, which triggered a substantial increase of US soy exports to the EU, moving the United States for the first time into "pole position" for soy exports to the EU.