Minister Must Reject Eu-mercosur Offer at Farm Council Meeting

IFA National Chairman, Jer Bergin, has called on the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney to reject outright the draft offer from the EU for increased imports from the Mercosur countries.

He said, “At the EU Farm Council meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, Minister Coveney must reject outright any exchange of offers. He must make it abundantly clear that Ireland cannot accept such a deal, which is totally negative for Irish agriculture, and particularly damaging for our €2.5bn beef sector. The deal will also impact on the pigmeat and poultry sectors”.

He said, “The Minister must work closely with his French counterpart to build further opposition among Member States and prevent any exchange of offers on sensitive products, which include beef”.

The EU draft offer is based on a TRQ (Tariff rate quota) of 78,000 tonnes of beef, of which 39,000 tonnes is High Quality Beef at a tariff rate of 7.5%.

Mr Bergin said, “Previous analysis by the European Commission has shown that a Mercosur deal would inflict losses of €7.8bn on the EU agriculture sector. The individual losses at farm level would be much higher, particularly for beef farmers. This would have a major knock-on effect on rural economies, resulting in job losses”.

The IFA National Chairman said EU beef consumption has fallen by over 500,000t since 2010. The European market cannot absorb additional volumes of imports without a very negative effect on prices and farm incomes. He said a new impact assessment of a Mercosur trade deal for European agriculture is urgently required and should be discussed in both the Council of Ministers and European Parliament before proceeding with any further Mercosur negotiations.