- During the course of visits and lectures of this kind, the students of the University of Debrecen get an opportunity to broaden their horizons and learn about certain processes from a different perspective. Today, they were able to acquire new knowledge about the operation and the forces driving agriculture and the global agricultural market through the presentation by Nicolas Rubio. As an agricultural counselor at the Office of Agricultural Affairs in Berlin, a part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), he could convey an exciting and complex impression of these issues for our students- said Zoltán Bács to hirek.unideb.hu.
The rector of the University of Debrecen recalled that it was in 2023 that the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management launched the precision agricultural engineering training program offering a double degree with the University of South Dakota. He also noted that visits like the current one would be important because they actively help to broaden the spectrum of university-level and professional cooperation.
- This is a different continent and a different world, about which we can acquire useful knowledge and experience, which we can then use successfully at a later stage. The development of American agricultural export and import processes, like, for example, the ban on pork and cattle export, also has a significant effect on the operation of the agricultural sector in Hungary. That is the reason why it is essential for us to maintain active connections with players in international economic and professional organizations. It is through these connections that we wish to broaden and expand cooperation in the areas of knowledge transfer, partnership programs for our PhD students as well as in the fields of research and innovation, focusing not only on agriculture, but also on other academic fields- said Endre Harsányi, Vice-Rector for Sectoral Development.
Agricultural Counselor Nicolas Rubio included an analysis of the agricultural market performance of the European Union and the United States in his presentation, and highlighted that the economic relationship between the EU and the US is currently the world’s largest bilateral trade and investment cooperation, the overall worth of which in 2024 was €1.68 trillion. Together, these two entities represent almost 30 percent of the world trade in goods and services and 43 percent of the global GDP.
- Every single day, goods and services worth about €4.2 billion change hands between the EU and the US on these two sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In the bilateral trade of goods between the EU and the US, the European Union has a trade surplus of €198 billion. However, regarding the trade of services, it is the United States that has a surplus of €148 billion. The total value of trade in agricultural and related products between these two regions exceeded $62 billion in 2024- said Nicolas Rubio.
According to the US diplomat, however, it can be observed that, by 2024, the US agricultural trade deficit with the EU had increased to around $26 billion, as US agricultural exports to the EU had been relatively stagnant, growing moderately, while the EU’s exports to the US had been increasing continuously and significantly since the 2000s. This was due, among other things, to the EU’s regulatory environment and the fierce competitiveness of European products.
As regards agricultural relations between the US and Hungary, Nicolas Rubio said the following: Although Hungary represents a small slice of the market for the US, it is still an important player in agricultural policy and regulatory debates within the EU. It has been renowned to take a firm stance on GMOs and biotechnology, new gene editing technologies, pesticide residue limits and rules on deforestation-free supply chains.
Press Center - ÉE