IFA and Meat Industry Ireland held a meeting with Tánaiste Simon Harris in Government Buildings on Friday to discuss the Mercosur trade deal. The delegation was led by IFA President Francie Gorman and MII Chair Philip Carroll and included senior representatives from ABP, Dawn Meats, Kepak and Liffey Meats.
IFA Francie Gorman said the engagement was an important opportunity to get an update on the negotiations between member states on Mercosur and to have an initial discussion with the Tánaiste on the so-called Safeguard clause. The draft legal instrument to give to expression to this was published by the EU Commission last Wednesday.
“Regrettably it is very difficult to see how this so-called safeguard clause will be of any help. It requires there to be a threat of ‘serious injury’ to the sector before an investigation is even launched. This is a very high bar, and the text says that there needs to be a 10% increase in imports and a 10% drop in price in a calendar year before an investigation is even launched,” he said.
“This safeguard clause effectively allows for the gradual destruction of the EU beef and poultry markets as this deal is phased in. It is just a political fig leaf,” he said.
MII Chair Philip Carroll said the core message to the Tánaiste was that beef and poultry should not have to pay the price of allowing other sectors in the economy gain access to the South American market. Either standards count for something, or they don’t.
“The way this deal is structured allows the Mercosur countries to fill their volume quotas with high value steak cuts. Once fully phased in, we are giving the Mercosur bloc a tariff windfall gain of over €400m annually. This will undermine the premium end of the EU steak market with an estimate loss of €1.3 bn in EU beef output value. MII estimate that the deal will cost the Irish beef sector between €100-130 million annually, in perpetuity, given our export dependency in these key EU markets.”
The President went on to say “The EU Commission want to push this through without much discussion, but our Government must redouble their efforts in working with other Member States which have issues with the deal. There is also a role for our MEPs to build alliances with colleagues to block the ratification of the deal in the EU Parliament”.
“Ahead of taking over the EU Presidency next year, the time for the Government to leverage support is now. We have had plenty of assurances about the Government’s opposition to the Mercosur deal, but it must deliver. We cannot countenance a deal that refuses to recognise the gap in standards between the EU and Brazil,” he concluded.
