Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

This negotiation has been going on for 20 years and Ireland has resisted, not the idea of a Mercosur trade deal, but rather the concession of tariff-free tariff-rate quotas, TRQs, for beef. It is a trade negotiation with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. To an extent, we have relied for some of our arguments on the Commission's own cumulative impact assessment of the damage that would be done to the European beef sector. That is now several years old. The impact would of course depend on the details of the deal, if there is to be one. We already have approximately 220,000 tonnes of product coming in from South America under other TRQs and the question is how much more would come in under such a deal, over how long this would be phased, the rate of tariff and the quota management system. We have consistently argued that if this is going to be done - we do not want it done - the quota division should arise from the fall of the carcass. If the TRQ is to be 50,000 tonnes, we do not want 50,000 tonnes of steaks to be sent here; the beef should be broken up in the same way as the carcass is divided. Those are the kinds of arguments we have made. The economic analysis has been that the Commission's own cumulative impact assessment-----