IFA President to Raise Concerns in Brussels about Mercosur Trade Deal

IFA President Francie Gorman will hold a series of high-level discussions in Brussels tomorrow about the Mercosur trade deal.

As part of the COPA meeting with the incoming EU Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen, the IFA President said he will be raising the very real concerns about the impact of the deal for the Irish beef and poultry sectors if passed. Francie Gorman will also meet officials from DG Trade to set out the dangers of a deal for farming.

IFA will hold a bilateral meeting with our French counterparts FNSEA to maintain the strong alliance in opposition to the deal.

Earlier this week, IFA Livestock Chair Declan Hanrahan and COPA Beef Working Vice Chair Brendan Golden met beef farmers from across Europe in Brussels at the Copa Cogeca Beef Working Group where the unified opposition to this deal was again highlighted and options discussed to intensify the campaign by EU farmers to have the deal rejected.

“The impact of a negative trade deal would be felt beyond the farmgate, with processing and upstream value hit by any decision to allow more imports.”

“The Commission’s plans appear to be to ignore the devastating impact of agricultural production in Brazil, while at the same time imposing greater regulations on farmers here. The next Government cannot allow this to happen. They must stand up for Irish farmers. Committing to support the beef sector as part of our General Election would be meaningless if this deal is allowed to go through,” Francie Gorman said.

“The Irish beef sector accounted for €2.7bn of our food exports last year. With 100,000 beef farmers, it is the largest farming sector in the country and has an economic impact in every parish in rural Ireland. Allowing Mercosur to pass would have serious consequences for this sector and for the poultry sector as it would totally undermine our Bord Bia Quality Assured produce,” he added.

“We secured commitments from the three main party leaders at the recent meeting of our National Council. Farmers need the three main leaders to be united on this. We need a steadfast and unified opposition to Mercosur.” “Whoever is Taoiseach and leader of the next Government must act quickly and say no to Mercosur,” he concluded.