France mounts bid to exempt fertilisers from EU carbon border levy, document shows

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, Jan 7 – France is seeking support from other governments for a push to exempt fertilisers from the European Union’s carbon border levy, which it argues is ‍needed to protect struggling European farmers, a draft document seen by Reuters showed.

The EU’s carbon border levy, which came into force on January 1, imposes CO2 emissions fees on imports of steel, fertilisers and other goods to ensure they do not have an unfair advantage over goods made in Europe, where ‌producers already have to pay for their CO2 ‌emissions.

A draft statement prepared by France and circulated to other EU governments called on the European Commission to temporarily postpone or suspend the carbon border fee for fertilisers.

“Such a postponement would ease tensions in the crop farming sector ​and give economic operators time to restore satisfactory fertiliser supply conditions for the 2026 crop year,” said the draft statement, seen by ‍Reuters.

The statement said France supports the ​EU carbon border levy, but warned applying it to ​fertilisers would hike costs for farmers already struggling with weak cereal crop ‍prices and higher costs from tariffs on Russian fertiliser imports.

“Farmers’ organisations have been warning of severe tensions over fertiliser supplies for several weeks,” it said.

“We have high hopes of winning our case,” a French agriculture ministry official said.

It was not immediately clear which other governments ‍would back the statement.

EU countries’ agriculture ministers will discuss the issue at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, convened by the EU to convince wavering ‍member countries to sign ‍up to a contentious free trade deal with ​South American bloc Mercosur.

France has consistently opposed the deal.

While ​removing ⁠fertilisers from the EU carbon border tariff would ‌ease costs for farmers in Europe, it could deal a blow to Europe’s own fertiliser producers whom the border levy was supposed to support, by preventing them being undercut by cheaper imports from countries with weaker climate regulations.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz, Sibylle de La Hamaide; Editing ⁠by Jan Harvey)