Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) president Tim Cullinan has met with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar to speak on the EU-Mercosur deal.

Following the meeting yesterday (Wednesday, April 15), Cullinan said that he had “insisted that the government must reject the proposed European Commission trade deal with the Mercosur countries”.

The deal, if implemented, would increase the amount of beef that can be exported by Mercosur (comprising Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) to the EU by some 100,000t.

Farm organisations have been highly critical of the deal, not least because of the lower environmental standards Mercosur producers have to adhere to, compared to the higher standards for European producers.

“By any measure, the Mercosur countries, particularly Brazil, have failed to meet the criteria laid down by the commission for further access to the European beef market. The Irish government must take a stand on this issue at EU level,” Cullinan argued.

He noted that, in the wake of Brexit, the EU is now 116% self-sufficient in beef.

“It defies logic that we would further undermine Irish and European beef farmers by allowing 100,000t of beef to come from the Mercosur region,” the IFA president added.

Meanwhile, Brendan Golden, the IFA’s national livestock chairperson, claimed it was “hugely hypocritical for the commission to be preaching about the Farm to Fork and the Green Deal strategies while at the same time facilitating wide-scale environmental degradation”.

“The commission cannot have it both ways. They expect the highest standards from farmers here, yet they are willing to sign a deal like this. If the ideals of the commission are to stand for anything, this has to be stopped in its tracks,” Golden insisted.

He also highlighted that, under EU rules, the deal must be ratified by each member state.

“There is little or nothing in this deal for Ireland. We must be prepared to reject it,” Golden urged.