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LAST UPDATE | 4 Dec 2024
NOT ONE BUT all three leaders of the largest parties in last week’s general election debate raised their objections to ‘Mercosur’ when being quizzed on farming and climate, but what exactly is this issue that could unite the entire political spectrum in opposition, and what has it do with Irish farms?
Well, Mercosur has become shorthand for the EU-Mercosur trade deal, a deal between the European common market and the South American trade bloc made up of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay as full members alongside various associate members.
Given that the members of Mercosur contain the largest beef exporter in the world, Brazil who exported three million tons of beef and veal in 2023, along with the fourth and tenth largest, Argentina and Uruguay respectively, the topic of beef was always going to be key to trade negotiations.
The EU already allows imports beef and poultry of Brazilian and Mercosur beef, approximately 170,000 tonnes was imported in 2022, including 29,500t of prime cuts along with another 10,000t from Argentina and 10,000t from Brazil at 20% tariff with the remainder on higher tariffs.
However, the proposed EU-Mercosur deal would allow for 99,000t, 45% frozen and 55% fresh higher value product, to be imported at a further cut down tariff of 7.5%. In poultry meat, a further 180,000 tonnes will be imported annually, entirely tariff free.
Farmers across Europe, in particular in France and Poland, have staged large-scale protests against the deal. Their objections surround the lower standards and traceability of Brazilian beef production, in particular the use of hormones and deforestation. A recent EU Audit concluded that Brazilian authorities cannot guarantee products supplied to the bloc do not contain beef treated with ‘17β-oestradiol’ despite it being banned by EU authorities in 1988. This led to Brazil being required to suspend exports of beef from female cattle where the product was used.
In addition, particularly given the recent push to restrict access to various pesticides and fertiliser in order to meet targets set out in the EU Green Deal, farmers have pointed to what they see as the hypocrisy of increasing imports given that as recently as 2022 saw record Amazonian deforestation. Despite worthy efforts by the current Brazilian administration to curb this trend, farmers raise concerns that a return to prior political landscapes could trigger rapid land clearance for cheap beef again.
Though not normally bedfellows on many matters, this topic has united in opposition both farming organisations and environmental groups, with Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the World Wildlife Federation all calling on EU member states to reject the deal.
Assessments of the Mercosur deal, along with already concluded free trade agreements with New Zealand and Australia, are expected to reduce prices paid to farmers by 2.4% by 2032. This is at a time when the majority of Irish beef farmers according to the Teagasc Farm Survey are already unable to keep their farms viable due to low market returns. However, the extent of the impact also depends on the form of beef ultimately imported, a slowing Chinese economy and trade difficulties with the US could result in Brazilian and Argentine exporters maximising their return by ensuring only the highest value cuts are shipped.
In attempts to counter farmer concerns, trade experts have pointed to the number of years Brazil and Argentina didn’t maximise their existing quotas, however, since the end of the Covid pandemic exports have sharply risen growing by 47% in 2023 compared to 2022.
France has proposed fundamentally rewriting the deal, and suspending all actions until then, in particular adding various ‘mirror clauses’ which would require an identical level of standards for products to be implemented. However, trade experts and even negotiators involved with the original deal have warned against ‘mirror clauses’ due to their non-compliance with World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade rules.
The WTO states it is illegal to ban products purely based on their production method but only on the basis of health or risk of the product, such as microbial infection or chemical residues such as pesticides.
These politicians in France and Belgium along with farming representatives have stated that this fails to address the divide between the EU’s environmental and animal welfare ambition and such a trade deal.
On the side of the trade deal in particular are Germany and Spain and many in the EU Commission, including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has strongly thrown her support behind the deal.
Germany has been a staunch supporter as a key element of the deal is in exchange for lower tariffs on beef it allows for reduced tariffs for cars at a time when the German economy is in particular difficulty due to competition from Chinese EVs.
Despite many of the parties in Ireland stating their opposition to Mercosur, the only real hope of blocking the deal would be to back the efforts of France to secure a blocking minority of EU states representing at least 35% of the EU population. Along with other countries whose French diplomats have targeted, such as Italy, Austria and the Netherlands.
All of this has a tight timeline, ahead of a key Mercosur summit in Uruguay on the 5-6 December, at the end of this week. Beyond this, the next Irish Dáil might face the question of whether it can advocate for an individual veto on such a deal, despite the pressure from other member states.
Thomas Duffy farms in partnership with his parents and sister in Co. Cavan. He is the former President of Macra na Feirme and former Vice President of CEJA, the Council of European Young Farmers.
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It’s your ‘civic duty’ to pay water charges.
While a foreign vulture fund is able to pay .000026% tax on €77m profit.
Do me a favour!
If big corporations paid their fair share and the tax payer wasn’t sending billions out of the Country every year to repay bank debt just think of the kind of Country we’d have..
If you compared the net tax take from multinationals (including income tax levied on their employees) and compared it to the combined tax take (after social transfers) of all SF/AAAPBP/SP/SWP voters, I think it would highlight who the real leeches are in this sham of a state.
@Denito:
I think it is time the people of Ireland took this country back and said good buy
to FF/FG/LABOUR for good.
@Denito: Exactly- the multinationals, the corporate sector generally, the Small Firms Association, the catering and ‘hospitality’ sector, farmers, cowboy builders and many, many mouthpieces who bleat on about “rural Ireland” until they turn up on revenue’s tax defaulters list, leeches one-and-all! Oh, and BTW, income tax derived from employees of multinationals is paid by THE WORKERS, not their bosses!
@Denito: So, to extend your logic then, because someone pays, say income tax, they should be allowed to avoid paying other taxes, like vat or tax on fuel and stuff then.
Income tax is paid by the worker, not the company, and I don’t support any of the parties you mention in your post by the way.
@Eyepopper: ah no its your civic duty to pay if you waste water. Hum let’s see I for that reason did not pay the water bill. Due to the fact the EU directive and Fine Gael whole argument again stated by Richard Burton is the the polluter pay principle for those who use excessive water. I did not do that so I did not pay and will not pay. Really Mary Lou McDonald missed that point.
My civic duty is to my fellow Irish Citizen by voting for politicians who think outside the box and do not stay inside the box with their enemies.
Enda’s running away again coz the water issue needs clarification, after the commission’s report.
@Dave Doyle: no Enda gone xmas shopping with his wifey on his over inflated salary of €201,000 a year plus expenses and of course his €5000 increase this year. Ah if only I could have his neck, he runs like the red shank and maybe he has the Irish constitution in his pocket to take out and wave at his wife when she annoys him. He only got married at 41 years of age, their 25 years married so he 66 years old . He needs a rest from all hassles.
@Clever Jake: Simon The conman has annoyed you Jake. His homeless project is a disaster, this government will not last another year. His hot air hissing is because he is shamed into a defenceless argument based on taking water an essential source for human life and putting a charge on it.
He gave me a great Idea, I’m off to the recycling centre to get the empty baldly gown plastic bottle to fill them with water and sell them to people to wash their cars. Thanks Simon you are a failed lost politician.
Seems Richard bruton carried on government policy. Not answering the question he was asked. Just waffled away. They don’t seem to remember the are not just answering to the td that asks the question but the public listening at home. Waffle doesn’t cut it.
Three times he was asked about referendum on water for public ownership. He ignored the question each time. Why?
All of this avoidance to enshrine Irish Water into the Constitution and reluctance to address the issue makes one has to wonder if Irish Water has already been sold.
Why is he going to the US and is he travelling standard class onboard an Are Lingus flight. Or is he using the Gulfstream jet at over €10,000 per hour.
@Michael Clinton: Moan moan moan. He is not there on holiday but rather an important trade mission. Considering the investment US companies have put into this country and Irish into the US I think such trips are worth their price or do you think we should all stay home and do nothing?
Just to keep you in the loop john, we have a superb Enterprise board that have worked very hard to get US companies to invest. All this rubber necked turnip is doing is going to take praise for the hard work others have accomplished. So as a taxpayer I am perfectly entitled to as questions and if “moan”.
@Michael Clinton: Of course Enterprise Ireland do great work but don’t underestimate the power of government. I know for a fact as I work for a US company that moved here. Kenny while hated in Ireland in generally liked by business in the US. I have been at the lunches and open evenings in San Francisco, DC and New York so less of the negativity.
@John Reese: power of govt ? this is kenny we are talking about a clown who bearly knows how to tie his shoelaces he is gone away again to avoid any questions on water, If he is so liked in the USA let him stay there because as you say he is hated here….
Well let him stay in the US and they are welcome to him. As I said I am as a taxpayer entitled to my opinion and well entitled to question anything that any person claiming to represent me does or says. If you don’t like what I say then kindly move on .
@Michael Clinton: No need to get all jumpy. I am pointing out a fact of trade missions. Your big American CEO gets a kick out of meeting a PM be that Irish or whatever country is trying to woo them. It is competition and to suggest that Kenny can’t even string two words together is lazy and wrong.
Kenny is as thick as a bag of sledgehammers, the waster has hung around the dail since he inherited his father’s seat. What has this buffoon contributed to the country ?????…. Sweet F/A. The gombeen stumbles from one shambles to another mumbling about how much confidence he has in his cohorts. He is an embarrassment to the country and if the American people want him so bad they are welcome to him. Everything this clown touches falls apart. Look at the children’s referendum, that was deemed illegal (and the money was never returned). What about the Senad vote.. Any other person call that referendum and those layabouts would be gone. Kenny is a prize clown that happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Ok it’s no point debating with a fool . Happy Christmas
@Peter Donnelly. A clown that can’t tie his shoe laces? And only gone to the US to avoid leaders questions? You realize by making such childish statements you completely undermine whatever is you are trying to say.
For all his faults, at least criticize constructively, but from what little I’ve seen from you, I seriously doubt you have the brain power.
That’s charming indeed, says more about you buddy and how pig ignorant you are. You fit right into the fg camp of ignorance. I can assure you that I will have a great Christmas. I wish the same to you and yours.
Ah,come on,bring this joke of governance to an end.the Irish people want and deserve a government,not this political play acting by fg.
We got what we voted for. If we had an election tomorrow, what do you think would actually change?
@(((Jason))): the govt ?
Unfortunately Peter it wouldn’t. An election tomorrow would see most of them reelected. And as recently proven, FF/FG are the same party who control the power and opposition. Nothing will change, Irish water will remain. The only way to rid the country of it is to remove ff/fg from power
Does Mary Lou realise most of rural Ireland have been paying fir water for years ?
God that argument annoys me so much. It’s the most blatant example of begrudgery imaginable. Grow up.
@Lurfic: Is it the fact that he pays for his private water supply that annoys you or that he also has to go ahead then pay for your water on top of that? Can you clarify your annoyance?
@John Reese: Someone shouod tell that stupid woman that many of her constituents don’t have a front and back door, all they have is a sleeping bag.
Begrudgery for what. How else do you expect people in rural areas to get clean water Your comment is annoying because of how uninformed it is.
Same can be said for urban. Should urban dwellers pay more for Shannon water when it happens to to the greater distance? No just like rural people should not have to fork out
Tis grand for some..
MLMcD & LeoV texting again during Leaders Q time
How hard can it be to find out how much upgrading the water network is going to cost. Once that’s done create a fund, if required apply a scaled tax for water usage. Set a standard rate that everyone pays and then problem solved. Now we are all used to the idea that water as a utility being free but the simple truth is that it’s not completely free. If we all contribute then the cheaper it will be to fund
@Éannus.. nobody is “used to the idea that water as a utility being free”; it has never been free. The “simple truth” is that it is already being paid for, but you already know that, don’t you? TBH, I don’t really see how you see the wilfully thick approach advancing your argument..
Sinn Fein need to grow a pair and stop letting the tail wave the dog. It’s because of their initial capitulation that the lowest common denominator is setting policy on this issue. Most people in this country care about the environment and want to see sustainable policies put in place. It’s time for SF and FF to prove they’re grown-up parties and tell Paul Murphy and his populist mates where to go with themselves.
Mary Lou is a two faced four chinned fcuker SF Agreed with Water charges until foetus face Murphy stole the lime light and they collect water charges in NI Such hypocrisy !!!
But they will bring out a tax that everyone pays that will be used to pay for water. Is that not illegal after the ECJ ruled that owners of wells do not have to pay for water and therefore well owners who pay this tax are making the government break the ECJ ruling?
http://www.independent.ie/business/farming/well-owners-evade-threat-of-water-levies-26807579.html
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/water_services/water_charges.html#l6a2ae
“Types of water/wastewater system If your water comes from a private well or a group water scheme and you have a private wastewater treatment system (such as a septic tank) you are not regarded as a customer of Irish Water and do not have to pay domestic water charges. “
So how can these people be taxed then?
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