In the past week, farmers across Ireland gathered in Athlone to protest against the EU-Mercosur deal. This deal, between the EU and Mercosur, a South American trading bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, would gradually extend the EU’s free trade parameters to include Mercosur countries. Farmers in Ireland argued that such an agreement would undercut the market share of local Irish produce.
Parading with dozens of tractors in the central city of Athlone, the protestors displayed signs with slogans like “Stop EU-Mercosur”, and others questioning the benefits of the EU agreements. This protest took place on Saturday, January 10th, a day after the EU-Mercosur deal was given provisional approval by the EU.
Farmers oppose the deal as it would remove all taxes from South American produce and effectively make it the cheapest available in the Irish market. Additionally, many farmers criticize the deal for undermining beef production in Europe with hefty regulations, especially environmental ones. Farmers also expect that these regulations will only be enforced within the EU and not the Mercosur block, thus contributing to an unbalanced playing field. Taoiseach Micheál Martin even expressed concern that Mercosur production would not abide by these strict environmental standards saying that Irish and European farmers should not be “undermined by food production systems [outside of the EU] that are not as carbon efficient and that don’t have the same stringent standards”.
The EU-Mercosur agreement, however, will not only affect farming markets. The deal will also gradually reduce tariffs on machinery, chemicals and pharmaceuticals European exports to South America and vice versa. Supporters of the deal contend that the deal will save the EU billions of euros in taxes a year and strengthen multilateralism within the democratic world.
The deal that is now 25 years in-the-making was finally approved by the EU on January 9th and is expected to be signed within the two blocks on Saturday, January 17th, where leaders of the two groups will meet in the Paraguayan capital. However, the approval of the EU deal in Ireland is far less certain, as it will be in many other countries in Europe that showed no support to the measure. The deal will be voted by Members of the European Parliament needing a majority of votes to pass.
