The Brexit issue lost its place on the front page in both London and Brussels this week but for very different reasons. In London, there was the harassment scandal in parliament followed by the revelations about who managed to keep their tax bill to an absolute minimum by using clever offshore finance arrangements.

The Brussels bubble may have its own issues with harassment as exposed by Politico but it hasn’t grabbed tabloid attention to the same extent as in the UK. The issue of the rich and famous minimising tax liability did strike a chord, particularly as so many of the locations used in various complex schemes are within the EU.

In agriculture circles, the Mercosur trade negotiations are causing great concern, particularly for the beef sector. Minister Creed was forthright in expressing his concerns in the Council of Agricultural Ministers meeting on Monday and there was considerable support from several other member states.

Listen to an interview with Minister Creed in our podcast below:

However, the reality is that with the exception of France, all of the other large EU countries are in favour of a Mercosur deal and agriculture (beef production in particular) isn’t a significant part of their economies.

European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan joined the council for a wide-ranging discussion on trade from an agriculture perspective. He diplomatically acknowledged the difficulties with Mercosur and the pressures it would place on the EU beef sector. However, he offset that with a review of the other deals that presented a more positive picture, particularly the Japanese deal which has good potential for the EU.

Watch a discussion between Irish Farmers Journal editor Justin McCarthy, director of livestock with the IFA, Kevin Kinsella and Jim Nicholson, MEP in our video below:

Part of the problem with Mercosur is that after almost 20 years there is a desire to get the deal closed and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Buenos Aires in December is being touted as the ideal occasion for the announcement of what would be a major global trade deal. There is also an unwritten focus by global trading blocks to get business done and deals concluded in light of the USA becoming more inward-looking with its “America first” policy and the UK leaving the major trading bloc that is the EU.

There is a further round of Mercosur trade talks this week and another is scheduled for the first week of December ahead of the major WTO conference in Argentina. Reports from South America suggest that the Mercosur beef exporting countries were seriously underwhelmed by the 70,000t offer at the last round. The fear now is that the EU might consider upping this offer and Copa Cogeca, the European farm organisations umbrella body in Brussels, held a press briefing to systematically go through just why the EU shouldn’t be opening its doors any further to South American beef exports in particular.

Secretary general Pekka Pesonen and beef working party chair Jean-Pierre Fleury spoke forcefully on the challenges facing EU beef production, the need and type of support required. This included ongoing CAP support to keep the specialised beef section viable and a suite of export schemes to encourage and reduce risk of entry into new third country markets. Copa is also looking for more tools to help farmers better manage risk in future and it is encouraging farmers to embrace the co-op model.

All of this is against the backdrop of Brexit, which has the potential to create the equivalent of a tidal wave effect if 250,000t of Irish beef is excluded from the UK market post-Brexit. The IFA, which is a member of Copa Cogeca, has been making the point that exclusion of Irish beef from the UK wasn’t just an Irish problem, it was a problem for the entire EU beef industry.

This point has been embraced and was made by the Copa Cogeca top table, and an extra 250,000t of beef on the EU27 market from Ireland would decimate price.

With this being the dominant issue in Brussels this week, a further two-day round of Brexit negotiations is due to start on Thursday and conclude on Friday. Northern Ireland Secretary of State James Brokenshire was also in Brussels this week for a series of meetings. He expressed the view that while there were possibilities based on current arrangements for some divergence on animal health issues for Northern Ireland, this didn’t extend to being a member of the Customs Union if the rest of the UK was out.

This served to remind that while Mercosur discussions may have held centre stage, Brexit also remains a huge problem, for Ireland with particular consequences for the beef sector. When Brexit and Mecosur beef access are combined, a perfect storm is created for Irish and indeed EU farmers.