IFA president Joe Healy said that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar must strongly support the tough stance taken by the French prime minister Emmanuel Macron on Mercosur. The French prime minister insisted that the negotiations would be discussed at the EU Summit and he has warned against rushing into a deal with the South American countries, including Brazil, which would damage EU agriculture, especially the beef sector.

Healy said: “The beef sector in Ireland is more important to our national economy than any other member state. The Taoiseach recently raised the danger for Irish beef farmers in the event of a Mercosur deal with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, and we expect him to keep our concerns to the forefront at EU level.”

Speaking at the European Commission Civil Dialogue in Brussels, IFA livestock chair Angus Woods told senior EU officials that the Commission was turning a blind eye on standards in the Mercosur negotiations to try to agree a deal regardless of the costs for European agriculture.

Woods contrasted the high production standards involved in EU beef production with the complete lack of standards that apply to imports from countries such as Brazil and other Latin American states. He said it is completely unacceptable that the European Commission continues to accept this policy of double standards when it comes to imports.

“Our system of traceability means all calves are double-tagged and registered on a central database, providing full traceability from birth to slaughter. In Brazil and other Latin American countries, they have non-existent or unreliable tagging or traceability systems.