Dempsey at Large: Mercosur protests – more than just 1%

The general community, media and business have united in castigating farmers for objecting so vigorously to the Mercosur deal.

But the objections of farmers go deeper than the 99,000 tonnes of beef involved in the deal – just over 1% of the EU beef market.

Granted, new safeguards to prevent a market collapse have theoretically been built into the final arrangements, but the basic principles of the deal still rankle.

Nobody pretends that traceability, environmental and animal health regulations in the Brazilian beef industry are – or will be – remotely comparable with those operating in the EU.

We have, in effect, seen exactly the same set of circumstances operate in the tillage sector over the last 20 years.

Prices have been set by the price of the imported products, both maize and soya covering the protein and starch needs of animal feed compounders.

As time and technology have evolved, Brazilian producers have benefited from developments in genetic modification (GM) plant breeding and have been spared the withdrawal of effective plant protection products that have been such a feature of recent EU “Green Deal” policies.

do not blame the EU’s business and political establishment for wanting a trade deal with South America

As two separate Irish Farmers Journal/IFA expeditions to Brazil have shown, the Brazilian beef sector is governed by a completely different set of conditions and is now the biggest exporter in the world while its herd continues to expand.

I do not blame the EU’s business and political establishment for wanting a trade deal with South America, especially given the unpredictability of the present Trump administration in the US and the ever-growing strength of China.

But from a farming and European food security point of view, the Mercosur deal threatens to do for poultry, beef and pigmeat what has already been inflicted on the EU cereal and sugar sectors.

Thought-out approach

What is clearly needed is a much more thought-out approach to the future of European farming and food production.

The Austrians raised the lack of profit in crop production at the end of last week

Instead, we have seen confused, piecemeal responses typified by the approach to the carbon border adjustment proposal in the fertiliser sector, with a fortnight ago, a commissioner saying it would not apply to fertilisers because it would increase farmer costs but then, the whole question being reopened with a continuing lack of clarity.

The Austrians raised the lack of profit in crop production at the end of last week and the lack of certainty as to whether the tax would apply or not.

The direct aid for beans is a good example of a piecemeal sticking plaster – better than nothing but doesn’t address the real problem.

Mercosur itself is not the core problem, but it is symptomatic of a CAP that has lost coherence and confidence in what it stands for.

The original articles in the Treaty setting up the CAP were very clear in specifying food security and a fair standard of living for farmers as being its core objectives. These both need to be revisited.