The Irish Government must rigorously challenge the technical details in the trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur, Sligo-Leitrim TD Marian Harkin has said.

Deputy Harkin has called on the Government to build alliances with like-minded Member States to ensure a level playing field for European beef farmers.

"Both the Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tánaiste Micheál Martin promised to reject the current Mercosur deal during the pre-election leaders’ debate and I expect both of them to honour the commitments they made at that time,” Harkin said.

Prime cuts

Pointing out that the agreement would allow prime cuts of beef from Mercosur – the common market of South American countries – to enter the EU tariff-free, Harkin said the agreement would undermine the Irish suckler sector.

"If Mercosur goes through without amendments and readjustments being made to the deal then Irish farmers will not be competing on a level playing pitch. Irish and EU farmers must operate under strict regulations abiding by directives on everything from soil quality to biodiversity protection and from strict veterinary medicine rules to land use restrictions.

"We have no guarantee that this will apply to South American beef,” Harkin said.

There has, she added, been much talk of culling the Irish national herd, but a poor Mercosur deal will accomplish that at one fell swoop, Harkin said.

"During my time in the European Parliament, I worked tirelessly with many others to ensure the Mercosur deal at that time did not go ahead, and it was successfully halted.

“Our previous Government signed up to rewetting and restoring hundreds of thousands of hectares of Irish land in line with the Nature Restoration Law. The same EU Commission now requiring Irish farmers to restore and rewet their lands seems happy to allow South American farmers to cut down the rainforest in order to supply beef to the EU market. This is totally contradictory and it places the Commission in an untenable situation,” Harkin said.

She called on the Government to immediately begin building strategic alliances with the French, the Poles, the Dutch and the Austrians who are equally opposed to the deal in its current form.

“It is of vital importance we build alliances with these Member States, especially France, to ensure that technical details within the deal protect the EU and the Irish beef sector. Strategic alliances also need to be built within the European Parliament to amend certain critical aspects of this deal.

Harkin added that while some people may see this as just a farming or a rural issue, she argued that this is a matter of national importance. Its impact will be felt most strongly in the west and northwest, she argued.