Spanish Table Olive Sector on Edge After Trump Election Win

President-elect Donald Trump’s cam­paign state­ments, in which he hinted at new tar­iffs on European exports to the United States, have weighed heav­ily on the Spanish table olive sec­tor.

Producers and exporters argued that the E.U. must promptly address the poten­tial for new tar­iffs.

According to Antonio de Mora, sec­re­tary gen­eral of the Association of Table Olive Exporters (Asemesa), U.S. tar­iffs on Spanish table olives already resulted in a loss of €260 mil­lion in exports over the past five years due to mea­sures imposed dur­ing Trump’s pre­vi­ous admin­is­tra­tion.

De Mora explained that, with reduced vol­umes of table olives shipped to the United States, Spanish pro­duc­ers saw their mar­ket share shrink by 70 per­cent.

“We lost those exports while com­pet­ing coun­tries, such as Egypt, Turkey and Morocco, expanded their own,” de Mora told Canal Sur Radio.

The exporters’ asso­ci­a­tion noted that the E.U. had quickly con­fronted China over tar­iffs, even announc­ing coun­ter­mea­sures against poten­tial new tar­iffs on European exports.

They urged Brussels to adopt a sim­i­larly dynamic stance in address­ing the antic­i­pated U.S. tar­iffs.

Trump has report­edly tapped for­mer U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who mas­ter­minded the pre­vi­ous Trump admin­is­tra­tion’s pol­icy around tar­iffs, to join his new gov­ern­ment as a trade advi­sor.

De Mora also high­lighted that Trump has men­tioned a pos­si­ble ten to 60 per­cent increase in tar­iffs on all E.U. exports to the U.S. on sev­eral occa­sions.

Exporters fear such a hike would add to the exist­ing tar­iffs bur­den­ing the table olive sec­tor.

Gabriel Cabello, pres­i­dent of the table olive sec­tor in Cooperativas Agro-ali­men­ta­ria de España, pointed out that since the U.S. elec­tion, there has been wide­spread con­cern and uncer­tainty through­out Spain’s table olive indus­try.

Cabello warned that the impact could extend well beyond the table olive sec­tor.

“When the con­flict between Boeing and Airbus ended in an agree­ment, the U.S. con­sid­ered extend­ing the exist­ing tar­iffs on table olives to green olives and olive oil as well, though the deci­sion was post­poned for five years, three of which had already passed,” he said, allud­ing to the long-stand­ing dis­pute that chal­lenged the olive sec­tor for years.

“We faced these tar­iffs for six years, and despite hav­ing two favor­able WTO rul­ings to lift them, the E.U. did not take any action to resolve the issue because we are a small sec­tor. They might act dif­fer­ently for larger indus­tries,” Cabello added, hint­ing at the pos­si­ble new tar­iffs on the auto­mo­tive sec­tor.

The Unión de Uniones, an asso­ci­a­tion rep­re­sent­ing Spanish farm­ers and ranch­ers, pub­lished a report high­light­ing the impor­tance of Spain’s strate­gic exports to the United States.

Regarding value, olive oil and related prod­ucts stood out as a sig­nif­i­cant export cat­e­gory, sur­pass­ing any other Spanish food prod­ucts sold to the U.S.

According to the asso­ci­a­tion, new tar­iffs would have had a heav­ier impact on prod­ucts with higher export vol­umes.

“This mea­sure… would dis­pro­por­tion­ately affect prod­ucts like olive oil, which accounted for 29.5 per­cent of total agri-food exports to the United States, with sales exceed­ing €739 mil­lion in 2023.”

Unión de Uniones stressed that the E.U. should nego­ti­ate with the President-elect, remind­ing Trump’s admin­is­tra­tion that ini­ti­at­ing a trade war would have had neg­a­tive con­se­quences for both sides.

In their view, the E.U. could impose coun­ter­mea­sures on U.S. strate­gic exports, includ­ing almonds, auto­mo­tive prod­ucts, tech­nol­ogy, alco­hol and lux­ury goods.

“We ought to remain vig­i­lant on this issue, not just con­cern­ing food exports. We already know that Trump would swap planes for olives with­out hes­i­ta­tion,” the Unión de Uniones com­mented. ​“It is essen­tial that the E.U. man­ages this sit­u­a­tion effec­tively and nego­ti­ates to ensure that agri-food exports are not used as a bar­gain­ing chip.”

Rafael Sánchez de Puerta, pres­i­dent of Cooperatives Agroalimentarias, empha­sized that U.S. tar­iffs on olive oil and table olives from Spain ​“do not make sense.”

“A tar­iff is put in place to pro­tect your prod­ucts from exter­nal com­pe­ti­tion, but American olive oil pro­duc­tion is sym­bolic, and the only out­come is a tax that U.S. con­sumers have to pay,” Sánchez de Puerta con­cluded.

• Europa Press
• El Correo
• Diario Córdoba