Meat Industry Ireland, a group that represents the Irish meat processing and export sector, has called on the Irish government to seek to halt the European Commission’s proposed trade deal with the Mercosur bloc, saying it would ‘significantly undermine the EU beef market’.
In addition, the group says that Ireland would face ‘particular repercussions’, should the Mercosur trade deal with countries including Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay go ahead.
Huge Uncertainty
"Given the huge uncertainty we face in the context of Brexit, coupled with the findings of the European Commission's own impact assessment report that states a trade deal with Mercosur would have serious negative implications for the EU beef market, it is completely unacceptable that the European Commission would push ahead with more concessions on beef imports,” said Cormac Healy, director of Meat Industry Ireland.
“These negotiations have been stumbling along for twenty years in a stop-start fashion, largely due to Mercosur's own inability to act as a cohesive customs union and trade bloc, so now is certainly not the time to rush a deal over the line.”
Healy said that any Mercosur trade deal that could allow “any additional volume” of concessionary beef imports into the EU market must be avoided.
“"As Ireland is the main exporter of beef to the rest of the EU market, the Irish cattle and beef sector would suffer the greatest consequences of this deal,” he said.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
