ICMSA say Commission “cynically” taking advantage of French political chaos to ‘sprint for the finishing line’ on Mercosur Talks

The President of ICMSA has said that the Irish Government will have to move quickly and signal immediately its intention to not ratify any Mercosur Agreement – either in whole or part.   Mr. Denis Drennan said that it appeared that Commission officials were seizing the opportunity provided by the current political crisis in France – the most outspoken opponent of the proposed deal – to ‘sprint for the finishing line’ and sign off on the deal while French politicians were dealing with their domestic situation.   Describing those tactics as cynical in the extreme, Mr. Drennan said that Ireland must signal immediately and unambiguously that there are no circumstances in which we will ratify such a commercially disadvantageous from an agriculture perspective and environmentally destructive trade agreement.   Mr. Drennan said that it was not possible to overstate the degree of threat that increasing imports of South American beef to the EU would present to EU farmers, the remaining forests in South America or the indigenous people that lived within them. He said that signing off on Mercosur was to ‘Green Light’ a further destruction of rainforests as lands were cleared for mass cattle farms and to condemn the indigenous inhabitants to harassment, displacement or worse and to suggest that the EU Deforestation regulations would prevent is simply living in fantasy land.

The cynicism of a Commission that pretends to care about the effects of intensive commercial farming on the environment and has predicated EU farming policy on the absolute need for sustainability while moving – all the while – towards a trade agreement that every single reputable environmental commentator and group have identified as representing a possibly terminal threat to the planet’s most important forests is frankly jaw-dropping.   There’s a point where official hypocrisy passes through disreputable and actually becomes unworkable and Von der Leyen’s Commission has reached that point here if it proceeds with the deal.   During the recent ‘run-up’ to Polling Day, our politicians stressed repeatedly that they were opposed to Mercosur and now they need to announce – nice and loud so it’ll be heard in Brussels – that there are no circumstances in which Ireland will ratify this Agreement and that all the Commission’s manoeuvrings have been for noting”, said Mr Drennan.The ICMSA President said that the statistics on and scientific data made impossible any move that might increase specifically Brazilian beef production.   “EU livestock account for 7.16% of global livestock emissions in 2021, Brazil on its own accounts for 12.03%. Between 1990 and 2021, total methane emissions from EU Livestock decreased by 25% while Brazil’s increased by 48%. While nitrous oxide emissions fell by 22% in the EU, Brazil’s increased by 49%. Remember that all these emissions connected with Brazil are already going the wrong way and that will accelerate as a result of a Mercosur Agreement as their corporations and ‘Rancher-Barons’ clear more forest to increase production.   

It’s been obvious for years now that the Commission has been listening to the lobbyists from the EU’s auto, pharma, tech and finance sectors and conducting these talks on the basis of how those EU corporations can be given favourable access to South American markets. The price the South American States have demanded is vastly increased exports to the EU and the Commission seems ready to accept that Environmental ‘Devil’s Bargain’.    Everyone know – or should know what’s at stake – and no-one can say they weren’t told. ICMSA has no hesitation in describing this issue as the single most important environmental decision that the EU will take in our lifetime.   If the bureaucrats and lobbyists get their way and this agreement is signed off on, then the EU forfeits the right to ever again talk about sustainability or the environment and the debate about transitioning to lower emissions farming is over as far as the EU’s own farmers are concerned”, said Mr Drennan.

Ends    6 December 2024

Denis Drennan, 086-8389401

President ICMSA

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Cathal MacCarthy, 087-8389401

ICMSA Press Office