An independent Irish MEP has branded the signing of a trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur counties as “hypocrisy on a grand scale”.
Last Friday (December 6), the EU reached political agreement with four Mercosur countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – on the controversial deal.
The controversial trade agreement would allow an additional 99,000t of beef enter the EU with a 7.5% duty.
55% of the quota will consist of fresh or chilled meat and 45% of lower-value frozen meat.
Mercosur
Midlands–North-West MEP Luke Ming Flanagan said that the Mercosur deal “puts EU farmers, particularly small and medium-scale producers, at a severe disadvantage”.
“The agreement increases import quotas for Mercosur beef by 50% (to 99,000t). This equates to the high value cuts of approximately one million cattle.
“It is utter hypocrisy for the EU to be driving ahead with a trade deal with the Mercosur bloc while at the same time lecturing farmers and others in the EU to reduce their carbon footprint.
“This is a deal being done at the behest of multinationals to facilitate their global exploitation of natural resources and human labour for narrow financial gain for the few,” he said.
Flanagan said that extensive agriculture in the peripheral regions of the EU will be one of the most impacted sectors.
He said that such enterprises “will be unable to compete with the economies of scale and the lower cost base of competitors in the Mercosur countries”.
“Mercosur’s industrial-scale farms, operating with lower costs due to weaker regulations on pesticides, hormones, and animal welfare, will undermine the EU’s stringent standards, which have been established to protect public health and the environment.
“European agricultural organisations have warned that the resulting price collapse will threaten food sovereignty, drive smaller farms out of business, and further concentrate the agri-food sector in the hands of multinationals,” he said.
Hypocrisy
Flanagan said that the “faux outrage of some politicians” to the Mercosur deal is “equally hypocritical”.
He said that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen “did exactly as she indicated she would do, to drive forward the Mercosur deal”.
Despite this, Flanagan said that the new EU Commission was ratified in a recent vote by the EU Parliament “with the full support” of the political groupings in which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael sit.
The MEP claimed that “this is just the opening of the door to imports from the Mercosur bloc”.
“While there may be safeguard clauses included now these will be eroded in time exposing EU produces to further unfair competition,” he said.
The MEP said that he would continue his opposition to the deal, highlighting that MEPs will still have to vote on the final text in parliament in advance of any final ratification.
In October, Flanagan was appointed as vice-chairperson of a delegation of MEPs to represent the European Parliament in relations with the South American trading bloc Mercosur.
The European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Mercosur (DMER) has been formed in several recent parliaments.
The purpose of the DMER is to develop contacts with elected representatives from Mercosur and the countries that compose it, namely Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.