The European Commission’s “scramble” to get the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement finalised will “end forever the commission’s credibility” on global warning, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has claimed.
The farm organisation was responding to a number of comments from EU officials indicating a desire to get the deal finalised by the end of the current commission’s term of office, which concludes after the European elections in June.
Speaking last week, the European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis said that a conclusion of talks with the South American trade bloc (comprised of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay) is “within reach” before the elections.
“We work to to seize this opportunity, which is of major geopolitical importance,” Commissioner Dombrovskis said.
However, ICMSA president Denis Drennan said it is unlikely that agreement would be reached, given the scale of current farmers protests and dissatisfaction across the EU, particularly in France and Germany.
“Even the idea that a deal can be rushed through before the commission’s mandate expires is as astonishing as it is demoralising,” Drennan said.
He called on Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to “signal immediately” Ireland’s opposition to any attempt to get the deal finalised before the elections, claiming that facilitating “mass importation” of South American beef would entail an “entirely predictable environmental disaster”.
“Irish farmers, still reeling from the severity of the restrictions and cuts that the government have hit us with in the name of climate mitigation, will read with disbelief the reports that the EU trade commissioner has expressed optimism about reaching a deal with the Mercosur bloc before the European elections this June,” Drennan said.
“The principal commodity that the Mercosur countries have to export to the EU is beef… In the event of a trade agreement being reached, those exports will be increased and produced off cleared forests. That’s not the opinion of farmers’ groups. It’s the opinion of every reputable analysis of the situation.”
“To facilitate EU [technology] and financial exports to South America, the EU proposes to facilitate South American beef imports here that will wipe out what is left of indigenous EU beef production, while inflicting cataclysmic damage to the most important forestry left on the planet,” Drennan commented.
The ICMSA president accused the European Commission of “political deafness” on the issue, claiming that the Mercosur agreement would “negate every single environmental measure that the EU has carried through in a decade”.
Drennan called on the Irish government to begin coordinating a group of member states to end any prospect of the EU-Mercosur deal being ratified.
“Nothing less than the credibility of the EU to ever talk on the environment is on the line here,” he said, labelling the environmental guarantees the commission says it is seeking from the Mercosur countries as a “joke”.