The president of ICMSA, Denis Drennan, has criticised the Irish government’s “non-performance” in opposing the proposed Mercosur Agreement and he said that that the Irish government has been “marked absent” throughout the last year in terms of taking an official and high-profile position of opposition.
Mr Drennan said that the Irish government’s ‘handwringing’ and tacit acceptance stood in stark contrast to the position of, for instance, the French government which “not for the first time” had been more vociferous and proactive on behalf of Irish farming and agriculture than our own government.
“The leaks coming from ‘sources’ that the agreement will be finalised by Friday make perfectly clear that agreement has been reached through the usual EU expedient of selling-out its own farmers and indigenous food production. What this means in practice is that the Mercosur group of countries will be allowed to export sub-standard beef and other products into the EU – products of a standard that would have them rejected out-of-hand if produced on Irish or other EU farms – and in return, financial services, pharma and German autos will be allowed unfettered access to the South American states involved.
“Everybody needs to be clear: there will be breaches of whatever regulations the EU pretends will apply to those South American imports. We have been here before and the standards were not kept – and they won’t be kept this time. No-one can say that they weren’t told or warned,” said Mr Drennan.
Mr Drennan said that whatever happened, the credibility of the EU and our own government in terms of climate change and other sustainability policies is effectively ‘shot’ and no weight could now be attached to pronouncements on the need for improved sustainability or lower emissions.
“Even at this late stage, the Irish government could – and should – stand up for Irish farmers and the principles, standard and science that we have all operated under for 20 years. They could – and should – call out Mercosur for what it demonstrably is: a complete sell-out of sustainable farming and declare that Ireland will reject Mercosur in its current format,” he concluded.
