This is a subscriber-only article
Bilateral trade talks are set to resume on 30 January in Brussels on the Mercorsur deal, with EU Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan under pressure to sign off on a deal that would see additional Brazilian beef access to Europe.
The European Commission is being pressured by the Mercosur trading bloc to table an improved beef import offer of up to 100,000t, but Commissioner Hogan has insisted that he cannot sign off on a six-figure sum.
Trade talks have been ongoing, with the Mercosur side offering to liberalise over 90% of tariff lines on leading exports such as cars and machinery, as long as their main demands on beef access and ethanol were met by the EU.
EU Commissioner for Trade Cecelia Malmström is keen to close the deal and told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos: “The window will be closing soon because Brazil is closing down, basically, for elections.
“If we lose this momentum, we are in for many, many years [of further negotiations].”
IFA
IFA president Joe Healy stated that Commissioner Malmström is undermining EU policies on climate change and that additional beef access for Mercosur countries is "lunacy".
“Commissioner Malmström has already conceded way too much in the giveaway of an additional 70,000t of EU beef market access,” Healy said.
“Now the Brazilians want more. Ireland and Commissioner Hogan need to say bluntly: enough is enough.”
Healy also raised concerns over the environmental sustainability of Brazilian beef and its failure to meet EU standards: “The Weak Flesh fraud highlighted again the food safety issues with Brazilian meat, where there are little or no controls on the use of hormones, drugs and beta-agonists which are all banned in the EU."
SHARING OPTIONS: