Frequently used in free trade agreements, safeguard clauses are emergency tools of international trade. They aim to prevent a sudden increase in imports of a product from causing serious harm to a sector, particularly a fall in prices. In such cases, imports can be temporarily restricted. These measures must be proportionate and lifted as soon as the risk disappears.
The safeguard clauses contained in the agreement were deemed "insufficient" by several member states. This is why the European Commission proposed a regulation establishing agriculture-specific safeguard clauses, definitively adopted on 10 February 2026. These clauses cover in particular beef, poultry, rice, honey, eggs, sugar and ethanol.
The European Parliament and the Council negotiated to lower the trigger thresholds for these clauses. The final proposal states that the European Commission will open an investigation if imports of sensitive products increase by 5% (compared with 10% in the initial proposal), on a three-year average, or if prices fall by more than 5% compared with the average, instead of the higher thresholds initially considered.
Doubts about their effective applicability
"The agricultural safeguard clauses have the merit of existing, but history has shown us that they are very difficult to trigger and therefore not very effective. Not to mention that the regulation establishing these clauses is not an integral part of the agreement itself and does not bind Mercosur countries in any way. Indeed, these countries can resort to the rebalancing mechanism and obtain compensation if they believe their export capacity has been hampered by these measures...", stressed Benoît Cassart, member of the AGRI and INTA committees.
Positive, but not sufficient
"Moreover, the safeguard clauses are in no way mirror clauses. The lack of reciprocity in production methods is therefore absolutely not resolved", concluded Benoît Cassart, Member of the European Parliament.