New Mercosur protests kick off in Brussels

Farmers from across the EU, including Ireland, attended a protest last Monday in Brussels against the Mercosur trade deal.

About 100 farmers assembled in Place Jean Rey, close to both the European Parliament and European Commission offices in Brussels. Representatives from most of Europe’s farming organisations who are opposing the deal spoke from a tractor and trailer to the crowd.

Last Friday, the Commission and the Mercosur bloc of countries reached a political agreement on the deal, which will allow up to 99,000t of South American beef preferential access to the EU market at a lower tariff rate of 7.5%.

Copa-Cogeca, the EU umbrella farm organisation, was clear in its stance against the deal.

It said that EU farmers and agri co-operatives are not opposed to trade, but advocate for agreements that are fair, balanced and environmentally sustainable.

“The current EU-Mercosur agreement fails to meet these criteria, using the agricultural sector as a bargaining chip to benefit other industries,” it said.

“The evidence is overwhelming: Mercosur countries do not meet the production standards required of EU agriculture, whether in terms of plant protection products, animal welfare or sustainability practices.

“Mercosur nations also operate under lower labour and safety standards, enabling them to produce at lower costs, which makes fair competition impossible for EU producers,” it added. IFA president Francie Gorman was in Brussels at the protest along with IFA poultry chair Nigel Sweetman and IFA livestock chair Declan Hanrahan.

There was a strong Irish presence at the protest, with Irish MEPs Ciaran Mullooly and Michael McNamara attending, along with Irish TD Michael Fitzmaurice.

Speaking at the protest Francie Gorman said that the Commission may have sold out European farmers, but there is a distance to travel yet.

“Essentially, we are back to where we were in 2019 with an EU Commission-agreed deal without a democratic mandate,” Gorman said.

“While the Commission president is talking up the benefits of the deal, she makes no reference to the very damaging consequences for the beef and poultry sectors,” he said.