LAST UPDATE | 6 Dec 2024

THE EU HAS reached a free trade agreement with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay – the Mercosur trading bloc, European Commision President Ursula von der Leyen has confirmed.

The deal concludes 25 years of negotiations that saw some fierce opposition by several Irish farmers, EU environmental groups and several nations across the Union.

“This is a win-win agreement,” von der Leyen said in Uruguay, where she was attending a summit of the Mercosur bloc involved in the deal, which also includes Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

This agreement is a win for Europe.

30.000 European small companies are already exporting to Mercosur.

Many more will follow.

EU-Mercosur reflects our values and commitment to climate action.

And our 🇪🇺 health and food standards remain untouchable ↓ https://t.co/Swp66exJrY

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 6, 2024

Both sides have been negotiating a trade agreement since 1999, with a goal of eliminating import taxes between the EU and countries Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The trade deal is expected to create a 700-million-consumer free-trade area.

Ireland, France, The Netherlands, Poland, Italy and Austria have voiced reservations over the deal.

The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) have denounced the deal, with IFA President Francie Gorman saying that that he will travel to Brussels over the weekend to meet farm leaders from across Europe and “step up the campaign” against the Mercosur trade deal.

“The Commission may have sold out European farmers, but there is a distance to travel yet,” Gorman said.

Gorman added that COPA, the European farmer representative body, will be coordinating a campaign to oppose the deal, with a flash action protest planned in Brussels on Monday morning.

“Simon Harris as Taoiseach and Micheál Martin as Tánaiste told the IFA National Council during the General Election campaign that they were opposed to the Mercosur deal. They must carry this commitment forward and oppose this deal tooth and nail,” Gorman added.

Thomas Duffy, a farmer from Co Cavan, wrote in The Journal this week that farmers are also concerned over the lower standards and traceability of Brazilian beef production, in particular the use of hormones and deforestation. 

It is currently unclear, but extremely unlikely, if the trade agreement will require farmers in the member countries to adhere to a European standards and traceability model.

This, despite products from the countries being of good quality usually, is a major grievance among food producers in Ireland.

Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland this morning, chairperson of the Irish Farmers Association livestock committee Declan Hanrahan said the products will not meet the standards that the European Commission has set.

“We (in Ireland) work under high standards, high traceability, from farm to fork,” he said.

“It comes at an additional cost to our production base. We have a family-farm model across Europe and across Ireland, which is the envy of a lot of world production.”

Many farmers believe, with the creation of a major free trade area, that South American producers will be able to undercut European traders as the Latin market may have a smaller margin.

Hanrahan said: “This deal is an insult to Europe, Irish farmers, European farmers and mostly European consumers.”

He claimed the European Commission, who is on track to agree to the deal, will not be in  a position to guarantee some of the product that will end up on the European market.

Farmers are also calling the agreement hypocritical, in the context of the EU’s major climate policy ‘the Green Deal’. They claim countries like Brazil are being awarded despite record levels of Amazonian deforestation in 2022.

French President Emmanuel Macron phoned von der Leyen to voice his reservations on the deal yesterday. He has branded the deal as “unacceptable”.

Independent Ireland MEP Ciaran Mullooly, Non-party MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan and Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan have also voiced opposition to the deal.

Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly told RTÉ News this morning that he will be engaging with von der Leyen next week and will voice Irish farmers’ concerns.

Countries like Spain and Germany are welcoming of the deal as they argue it would benefit the sale and distribution of the wine and cars, respectively. The European Committee for Wine Enterprises has welcomed the deal.

Any agreement must first be ratified by the majority of the European Council, made up of the Taoiseach and other European leaders, and later receive the green light by MEPs in the European Parliament.

In a move which could indicate how MEPs may vote in the future, the European Parliament’s trade committee this week approved a motion welcoming any potential deal that arose from von der Leyen’s visit to Uruguay.