EU Commissioner responsible for trade Maroš Šefcovic being interviewed by Phelim O'Neill.
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The European Commissioner with responsibility for Trade, Maroš Šefcovic met with the leaders of farming and industry as well as politicians during his visit to Dublin last week.
At the end of these engagements, he sat down with Phelim O’Neill and discussed Mercosur and other EU trade deals and negotiations. As Phelim reports on pages 26-27, he mounted a robust defence of the deal with the South American countries and he is of the belief that it will have no greater impact on Irish beef producers than a previous deal with Canada.
Of course, the main reason the EU imports very little beef from Canada is because, in general, Canada prefers to continue using growth-promoting hormones to having the EU as a market option. On Mercosur, the bottom line is that there is no upside for farmers and the best that can be hoped for is that the safeguards are robust enough to limit the damage.
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In the meantime, the Commissioner should have levelled with farmers if they remain determined to push on with the deal. He should have said that the Mercosur deal is so good for the rest of the economy we had to make concessions on beef to get it. He could then have added that we have done our best to limit damage on Irish and EU beef producers, but we can’t be sure if it will work. This wouldn’t have been what Irish farmers wanted to hear, but it would have been honest.
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The European Commissioner with responsibility for Trade, Maroš Šefcovic met with the leaders of farming and industry as well as politicians during his visit to Dublin last week.
At the end of these engagements, he sat down with Phelim O’Neill and discussed Mercosur and other EU trade deals and negotiations. As Phelim reports on pages 26-27, he mounted a robust defence of the deal with the South American countries and he is of the belief that it will have no greater impact on Irish beef producers than a previous deal with Canada.
Of course, the main reason the EU imports very little beef from Canada is because, in general, Canada prefers to continue using growth-promoting hormones to having the EU as a market option. On Mercosur, the bottom line is that there is no upside for farmers and the best that can be hoped for is that the safeguards are robust enough to limit the damage.
In the meantime, the Commissioner should have levelled with farmers if they remain determined to push on with the deal. He should have said that the Mercosur deal is so good for the rest of the economy we had to make concessions on beef to get it. He could then have added that we have done our best to limit damage on Irish and EU beef producers, but we can’t be sure if it will work. This wouldn’t have been what Irish farmers wanted to hear, but it would have been honest.
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