The Government will carefully scrutinise the detail of the EU-Mercosur trade deal before concluding whether or not Ireland will support or oppose the agreement, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has said.
Speaking in Brussels, Mr McConalogue said: "Ireland has been very much at the forefront at a European level in relation to ensuring that in terms of trade, that the same obligations are put in those countries we trade with, from an environmental point of view, as we ask of our own farmers and our own producers.
"Ireland has expressed very serious concerns in relation to this in the past, and we'll be very closely now looking at what exactly the final detail of that text is before coming to any conclusion."
The minister said Ireland had sought environmental and food safety safeguards, and those would be critical in the Government's assessment of the agreement.
"We weren't in a position to support Mercosur in relation to how it was initially proposed without safeguards that would ensure standards were upheld."
The European Commission and the five Mercosur countries - Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay - signed a trade agreement in principle in Montevideo on Friday, following negotiations that have gone back 25 years.
The agreement provides for 99,000 tonnes of beef imports to the EU per year at a reduced tariff rate of 7.5%, phased in over seven years.
Mercosur farmers will also be entitled to export 180,000 tonnes of poultry meat per year tariff free, phased in over five years.
In return, EU producers will be able to sell olive oil, wine, dairy products, chocolate and other foodstuffs at reduced tariff rates, while the Latin American market will also be opened up to European automotive, machinery and pharmaceutical exports.
The European Commission has said both sides would be subject to legally binding provisions on deforestation concerns and climate change, while EU member states would continue to be charged with ensuring that only hormone-free beef would be permitted to enter the European market.
The trade deal will need to be ratified by member states on a qualified majority vote (QMV) basis and the European Parliament.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Under QMV, at least four member states representing at least 35% of the population would be required to form a blocking minority.
So far 11 member states have said they support the EU-Mercosur trade agreement; France, Austria, Poland and the Netherlands have said they are opposed.
Mr McConalogue said Ireland would continue to engage with other member states on ensuring that safeguards were in place.
Farmers protest over impact on beef industry
At a protest involving farming groups from across Europe in Brussels, Irish Farmers' Association President Francie Gorman said: [The agreement] is going to bring the equivalent of 4 million cattle into the European Union. As a country that exports a huge amount of beef, it will have a disproportionate effect on our beef industry.
"The issue of standards, how the beef was produced, flies in the face completely of what we've been asked to do as Irish and European farmers.
"Our leaders have to stick with the commitments that they gave during the general election campaign, that they were going to oppose this, and not just that: they need to lobby their counterparts across Europe to see that this deal is opposed."
Mr Gorman said opposition to the Mercosur agreement should be a pre-condition set by both junior and senior coalition members during the talks to form a new government.
He said the European Commission's own animal health officials had expressed reservations about the provenance of Brazilian beef that would be exported to Europe under the deal and the standards to which it was produced.
European Commission officials have insisted that hormones in beef remain banned from Europe, and that the Brazilian authorities have said they are not shipping certain categories of beef until an investigation into shortcomings has been concluded.
Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice, who attended the protest, called on Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tánaiste Micheál Martin to ensure Ireland was making allies with France and other member states in opposing the agreement.
"At a time when there's so much talk about the environment, about producing good food, about producing food without hormones, we are now allowing a situation to develop that we are going to be bringing in foods that won't be produced to the same standard."
Independent MEP for Ireland South Michael McNamara said: "This deal sells out both European farmers and consumers and three decades of progress towards sustainable food production in the EU.
"[European Commission president] Ursula von der Leyen is a German politician and it's understandable she'd want to assist the beleaguered German automotive industry, but… she has a duty to act in the interests of all of the European Union, not narrow sectoral interests.
"In flying to conclude the deal the day a national government opposed to it falls, she also undermined the idea of a European co-operation and cohesion."
