The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has said that the Irish government must signal its intention to veto ahead of any talks on the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement.
The comments come as the Swedish presidency of the Council of the EU seeks to reignite discussions on the controversial deal.
Sweden’s trade minister Johan Forssell, and the European Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, have both expressed hope that the agreement could be progressed in the coming months.
Mercosur
The Mercosur deal would allow for an additional 99,000t of beef from the South America trade association – currently comprising Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay – to enter the EU tariff-free.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue addressed free trade agreements (FTAs) yesterday (Monday, March 20) at a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council of the EU (Agrifish council).
The minister called on the EU Commission to ensure robust commitments on environmental compliance regarding the Mercosur agreement and the ongoing discussions on the Australia agreement.
However, ICMSA president Pat McCormack has said that Minister McConalogue needs to stop “tiptoeing” around the prospect of a “reheated Mercosur deal”.
He said the minister must state “upfront and categorically” that Ireland will veto any version of the agreement that does not hold South American food exports to the same standards demanded of EU farmers.
EU governments were adding more layers of environmental rules onto farmers on a daily basis, despite EU farmers already being “the most heavily regulated farmers on the planet”, he said.
Against that backdrop, McCormack said that it was “beyond satire” that a trade agreement would be pursued with South American states “whose own record of environmental protection was thin to non-existent”.
“At what stage would the magnitude and brazenness of the double-standard strike the officials concerned?” the ICMSA president asked.
He said that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar should announce that Ireland will never support any version of the Mercosur deal which does not include a verifiable requirement that any food or farm produce imports must be produced to environmental standards equal to or greater than those operated within the EU.
“Either that happens or the shadow of a possible Mercosur agreement will fall on every single sustainability and environmental target set out and the whole policy becomes a joke. It is either one or the other,” McCormack said.