GRAVE threats posed by Mercosur serve as a fear shared by farmers in Ireland and across Europe, MEP Michael McNamara (IND) has said.
Attending the largest mart on the European mainland in Ciney, Belgium, with European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen, MEP McNamara said the concerns voiced by farmers are the same as in Ireland, including a fear of Mercosur.
He stated, “Speaking to farmers and their representatives here today, the concerns are the same as in my constituency of Ireland South – the difficulties faced by young farmers to take over family farms, the need to reduce bureaucracy and simplify CAP compliance and, especially, the grave threat posed by Mercosur”.
Scariff native McNamara held discussions with the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen. “The Commissioner told us he had no knowledge of any negotiations around an annex in the Mercosur agreement containing mirror clauses that would require producers from both sides of the world to respect the same environmental and health standards but stressed it was a matter for his colleague, the Trade Commissioner.”
Earlier this month, during a state visit to France by the Brazil President, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concerns about the current draft of the Mercosur deal, insisting that further changes to the agreement were needed. While expressing support for fair and equitable trade, Macron warned that the current Mercosur deal would require European farmers to compete against South American counterparts on unequal terms since the South Americans would not be subject to the same regulations.
“My colleague, Benoît Cassart MEP, who is also a farmer, expressed scepticism about the prospects of any such additions and I agree,” McNamara added. “The promise of mirror clauses increasingly appears to be a mirage to placate, and ultimately deceive, farmers and consumers alike”.
McNamara concluded: “The enforcement of any mirror clauses, even if they can be negotiated, simply will not be possible without access to, and supervision of, South American production that simply does not exist. There’s also the difficulty of detecting hormones and supplements, banned in Europe, as pointed out by the Commission’s Directorate-General for Health & Food Safety”.
