Ms Sinéad McPhillips:

It is divided between prime cuts and lesser cuts. However, assuming the additional imports are in the high-end cuts, an economic analysis was carried out, commissioned by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in 2021, which forecast that beef imports from Mercosur to the EU as a whole would increase by around 53,000 tonnes as a result of the agreement. It is important to acknowledge that there are existing imports from Mercosur countries that are facing a tariff at the moment. They would benefit from the reduced tariff arrangements being phased in over a six-year period. The net result was estimated to be that imports would increase by 53,000 tonnes and the impact of the additional imports on Ireland, assuming they were high-end cuts, would be that producer returns in Ireland could fall by around 2%, which at the time was estimated as between €44 million and €55 million of an impact on beef sector incomes. That is a serious concern.

The other side of it, which the Senator alluded to, is the standards to which farmers are held in Mercosur countries as opposed to in the EU. As we understand it, two separate sets of standards are being talked about. SPS standards are non-negotiable. They relate to food safety and animal and plant health standards that apply equally to EU production and to imports from all around the world. In its recent proposal the Commission has committed to stepping up the audits and inspections in third countries to ensure that those standards are upheld. There is no change in standards and no difference in standards, however. The other standards are the standards of production, the sustainability standards that our farmers are held to in terms of their production and how they farm.

Of course we would like to see those same standards applied to producers in other countries. However, we have to bear in mind, not just with Mercosur but with other third countries, that as an exporting nation, if we apply EU standards to our imports, then equally we could be held to different standards when we export so that is a consideration. What we want is a level playing field but we do not have it.