The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula), has said that Brazil will walk away from trade deals with the EU, if there is any further delay to ratifying the EU-Mercosur trade agreement.

Da Silva made the comments when addressing his cabinet in Brasilia yesterday (Wednesday, December 18).

He said that Mercosur countries have been waiting for 26 years to finalise the deal, which he also labelled as far more favourable to the EU than Brazil.

The Mercosur trade deal would see Mercosur countries such as Brazil and Uruguay remove import duties on 91% of EU goods.

However, on the other side of the agreement, the Mercosur countries would get to sell their goods to the EU with fewer restrictions.

These include sugar, honey, soybeans, and, importantly to Ireland, meat, specifically beef. It would allow 99,000t carcass weight of beef from the Mercosur countries to enter the EU at a much reduced tariff rate of 7.5%.

The quantity of beef under this quota will be phased in over a five-year period.

The European Parliament has voted on some safeguard measures to ensure minimal adverse impact on the EU market for farmers which includes triggering an investigation if prices fall 8% or lower for European beef.

The amendments and changes to the trade deal have resulted in some delay in the agreement being formalised as it involves the three institutions of the EU - the Council of Ministers; Parliament; and Commission.

Speaking in Portuguese in Brasilia, President 'Lula' said (translated): "This meeting on Mercosur was supposed to be on December 2. I moved it to December 20 because the European Union requested that they could only approve the agreement with Mercosur on the 19th [of December].

"I've already informed them that if we don't act now, Brazil won't enter any more agreements, as long as I'm president."

The president said that Mercosur countries have been waiting 26 years for the agreement. "The agreement is more beneficial for them than for us," he said.

"The concrete fact is that we in Brazil and Mercosur have worked hard to accept this agreement and communicate its value at a moment when you have a president in the United States wanting to weaken multilateralism."

"If they [EU] say no, we will be tough with them moving forward because we have given everything possible in diplomatic concessions."

The Irish Government, which is represented on the EU Council of Ministers has still not formally adopted a position on the deal, but it now unlikely that a decision will be made today or tomorrow.