The time for the Government to stand up on Mercosur is now, Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) president Francie Gorman has said.

This comes following the move by the European Commission to push ahead with the Mercosur trade deal.

“We have had plenty of assurances about the Government’s opposition to the Mercosur deal, but it has to deliver. We cannot countenance a deal that refuses to recognise the gap in standards between the EU and Brazil,” Gorman said.

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Gorman said beef and poultry producers should not have to pay the price of allowing other sectors gain access to the South American market. Either standards count for something, or they don’t, he argued.

“The [European] Commission would probably like to push this through without much discussion, but we will be looking to other member states which have issues with the deal to back us here. There is also a role for our MEPs to build alliances with colleagues to mount a blocking vote to the deal,” he said.

“At every opportunity, we have raised this with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Agriculture. During the last general election, we had their backing to oppose the deal and that commitment has to stand. Failure to do so would amount to reneging on what has been promised,” he said.

The IFA president said the overall approach to trade issues by the Commission has to be questioned.

“Even with improved prices over the last 12 months, the incomes of beef producers are very modest. It’s both hypocritical and contradictory to insist on the highest standards for European producers, only to allow Mercosur countries access without reaching the same standards," he said.

ICMSA

The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) has described the move by the Commission to ratify Mercosur as “a calculated betrayal” and “mind-boggling hypocrisy”.

ICMSA president Denis Drennan said that identifying the Irish interest on this matter could not be more straightforward and our Government must speak for and "dig in" on that interest.

He said that even aside from Ireland’s critical interest in maintaining our beef exports to fellow EU member states, Ireland and the other member states with large agricultural sectors were surely entitled to insist on a minimum level of consistency from the Commission and the decision to proceed with ratification represented the abandonment of any pretence at consistency and reason.

“How can anybody imagine that we can have Irish and other EU farmers practically drowning in a relentless tide of EU micro-regulations on the environment and sustainability, while the very same EU concludes a trade agreement that will see massive imports of beef and other foodstuffs produced in an environmental free-for-all and without a semblance of sustainability? If this proceeds, then it becomes the ‘gold standard’ in international and institutional hypocrisy and double standards," said Drennan.

The situation, he said, the "other side" of a Mercosur ratification would have Irish farmers producing beef subject to the most stringent sustainability and environmental regulations and oversight imaginable having their beef side by side on European supermarket shelves with cheaper South American beef produced to notably lower standards of regulation, health and traceability on ex-forest land cleared by burning with any indigenous peoples driven off, forcibly evicted – or worse – by the corporate rancher-barons who comprise the beef sectors in these states.

Drennan called on the Irish Government to make a united case with other member states – specifically, France – and form a blocking element that will halt any ratification process.