Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher has voiced concerns that the EU could see a kneejerk pushback against any and all moves to free up international trade in the wake of the controversial EU-Mercosur free trade deal.

The MEP for Ireland South said last week that while he is opposed to an EU deal with Mercosur, he sees that “obstacles to trade are not generally a good thing”.

“I would just be concerned that we would start going down the road of saying all trade deals are bad because they could undermine something else at home - the opposite has always been the experience,” Kelleher told the Irish Farmers Journal in Strasbourg.

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Kelleher said that the looming prospect of an all-out EU ban on the importation of Brazilian beef provisionally due to take effect from 3 September backs up the claim that Europe’s system of imported food safety checks works.

However, he was keen to add that, in his view, import bans should not become the norm whenever a there is a potential risk to the EU.

Checks and balances

“I mean it does show that the checks and balances that are there around human health and the impact it could have on public health, there is checks and balances there,” Kelleher commented.

“You could ask to yourself the question whether Mercosur was in place or not, would they have identified the concerns about product contamination and the recall of Brazilian beef. And it was Brazilian beef and only Brazilian beef, it’s not on about the other Mercosur countries.

“Europe is very much to the fore in making sure that food that is being consumed in Europe is safe and anytime they identify a weakness, there should be an immediate banning of imports and investigations.

“But that doesn’t mean that you stop every trade deal because there may be a potential risk. You put robust systems in place to make sure you can identify a risk.”

Government’s ‘no’ vote

Kelleher suggested that the Irish Government’s decision to vote to oppose the implementation of the Mercosur deal was correct, despite the criticisms of Government voiced from factions of the pro-Mercosur camp after its vote was cast.

“There was an election in Ireland where the political parties said that they had major concerns about Mercosur in advance of the last election and they were returned to parliament under the assumption that they would honour that in good faith,” he said.

“Always, decisions have consequences and maybe you get a cold shoulder shown to you for a period of time, but there has to be an acceptance that Ireland is in a unique position.

“It didn’t come as a surprise that we opposed it and we were not the only country. France is the second-largest economy [in the EU] and they opposed it as well, others did too.”