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Beef deal could be catastrophic
for Irish farmers
01.07.19
FIANNA Fáil
Spokesperson on Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has
warned the Agriculture Minister to ensure that Irish
farmers interests are represented in Europe and
called on him to oppose any ratification of the
Mercosur deal due to the fact the full impact of
Brexit has not yet emerged.
He was responding to the announcement that
negotiators from the European Union and the South
American Mercosur trading block have agreed a trade
deal.
Deputy McConalogue commented, “This deal has taken
almost 20 years to negotiate and Irish farmers have
opposed the proposals in it every step of the way.
The deal has always had the potential to damage
Irish farming but combined with the possible loss of
trade in the British market as a result of Brexit,
Mercosur could prove catastrophic." |
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Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on
Agriculture,
Charlie McConalogue. |
“This deal will see
99,000 tonnes of South American beef allowed into
the European market every year. This will have a
huge impact on prices, at a time when beef farmers
here are already to the pin of their collars.
“This deal will also have a detrimental impact on
the environment. It seems ironic that on the one
hand the government and the EU talks about reducing
our carbon footprint to mitigate climate change,
while on the other they have no issue with flying
South American beef thousands of kilometres into
Europe.
“Minister Creed knows that this is a bad deal for
Ireland. He must engage with his European
counterparts to ensure that there is no decision to
ratify this deal given that we do not know what the
full impact of Brexit will be. We export around
270,000 tonnes of beef to the UK every year, will
our farmers now have to compete with cheap South
American imports in a post-Brexit scenario?
“This is an exceptionally volatile period and I
believe the EU should not take any decisions on this
deal until the full post-Brexit scenario is known”,
concluded Deputy McConalogue. |
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