Concerted efforts to remove technical barriers to EU exports of agricultural products to third markets are bearing fruit for EU producers who can benefit from new trade opportunities, and this was welcomed by Commissioners Andriukaitis, Malmström and Hogan, who were recently in Mexico.

"This is a step in the right direction. In light of this positive development, we expect the Mexican authorities to continue granting access to such imports from other EU Member States. The barriers our exporters face are not justified in the light of our very high safety standards. Moreover, as the world's largest food importer we are clearly respecting our international obligations. We are now insisting on equally fair treatment from our trade partners and this is already bringing good results. We are determined to get even better results in the future, working closely with our Member States and our food exporting industries. We are confident that we will make complementary progress in the sanitary and phytosanitary area in the near future and that barriers to trade will be further reduced in line with our international obligations. Making progress in this area is a priority in order to offer our companies more and better trading opportunities in the future. The market is opening for fresh pigmeat from Spain; we expect the go-ahead for fresh pigmeat from France; and work is ongoing for exports from Germany, Romania, Italy and Poland."

For the 12-month period February 2015 to January 2016, EU agri-food exports reached a value of more than €129 billion, meaning an increase by 6 per cent in value compared to the same period one year ago.