DESPITE a raft of political assurances from Government Ministers and a former Irish EU Commissioner on the Mercosur Trade Deal, farm leaders – both local and nationally – have warned of negative consequences, especially for beef farmers.

Galway IFA Chairman, Stephen Canavan, told the Farming Tribune, that in terms of beef production alone, there was no such thing as a level playing fields when it came to Irish-European farmers and their counterparts in South America.

“At a time when the importance of sustainability in farming is accepted as being the way forward, how can this be balanced with the fact that every minute of every day, areas of rain forest in Brazil – the size of a football pitch – are being cut down to expand farm production.

“There has to be a level playing field when it comes to Irish and European farmers and the unfair competition that they will face from farmers in the Mercosur countries [Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay].

“The same rules have to apply in terms of disease controls in relation to such issues as TB and Foot-and-Mouth; the use of hormones and antibiotics; and traceability.

“And then, there is the whole issue of transporting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of beef from a continent that’s 5,000 miles away – surely that’s not a sustainable proposition,” said Stephen Canavan.

Earlier this month, IFA and Meat Industry Ireland, held a meeting with Tanáiste Simon Harris in Government Buildings to discuss the implications of the proposed and agreed Mercosur, due to be formally signed off on, in the coming days.

IFA President, Francie Gorman, said that they made it very clear to the Tanáiste that it was very difficult to see how a so-called ‘safeguard clause’ [to ‘protect’ EU farmers from price cuts] would be of any help.

“It requires there to be a threat of ‘serious injury’ to the sector [beef and poultry] before an investigation is even launched. This is a very high bar, and the text says that there needs to be a 10% increase in imports and a 10% drop in price in a calendar year before an investigation is even launched,” said Francie Gorman.

He added that the safeguard clause effectively allowed for ‘the gradual destruction’ of the EU beef and poultry markets as the Mercosur deal would be phased in. “The safeguard clause is just a political fig leaf,” said Francie Gorman.

Last week, former EU Agri Commissioner, Phil Hogan – who in August, 2020, resigned his job following the Clifden Golfgate controversy during the height of the Covid regulations – pitched in behind the Mercosur deal.

He told RTE News that there would be many winners for the Irish agricultural industry in the Mercosur deal including the dairy and grain sectors, who he said would be ‘big beneficiaries of this particular deal’.

Phil Hogan, who now works at EU level as a ‘trade lobbyist’ said that it would be ‘very difficult to explain’ if the EU turned its back on a trade deal covering a combined population of 700 million people.

Pictured: Stephen Canavan: Not a level playing field.