Mr. Maroš Šefovi:

On humanitarian aid to Gaza and Israel, as members will know, the European Union is the biggest provider of humanitarian aid anywhere, especially to Gaza. There are hundreds of trucks around Gaza waiting for permission to get in and deliver the absolutely necessary humanitarian aid. We have been doing our utmost to communicate with the Israeli Government to make that happen. It was on and off and on and off again. I agree that the pictures coming from Gaza and the number of casualties are heartbreaking. In my previous diplomatic capacity, I was posted to the Palestinian territories so I have been in Gaza many times. When I see the pictures on the screen, like everybody else, I recognise that the place has been completely destroyed.

What is happening right now, and what we proposed, is the suspension of the trade parts of the EU-Israel association agreement. Why not the whole association agreement? The reason is that as an exclusive competence of the EU, the Council would vote on that by qualified majority. I will not hide the fact that even this proposal might not be easy to get from the member states. If we were to suggest the full suspension of the association agreement, it would require unanimity and I know 100% that we would not get it. This is a clear signal to Israel that we are suspending the trade parts of the association agreement. We did it immediately after the commitment of the President of the Commission to the European Parliament, at which Irish MEPs have been very vocal on this issue.

On the US, Deputy Kenny is absolutely right that the pharmaceutical business and food exports are extremely important for Ireland and the EU. On the pharmaceutical business, we have discussed from the beginning the strong preference for having zero-to-zero tariffs because this concerns the prices for medicines in pharmacies and the provision of healthcare to people on both sides of the Atlantic. The philosophy of the United States is different. They believe that, through tariffs, you can re-industrialise the country and address some of the issues with the public finances. There are many other reasons which I will not go into.

Members will have heard President Trump announce that tariffs might be 100%-plus. That was supposed to happen on 1 October. We negotiated in our deal with the Americans that the European pharmaceutical business would be shielded by the 15% all-inclusive tariffs, which we agreed and I know our pharmaceutical businesses would very much welcome. Until now, all the parts of the agreement we had in the joint statement, negotiated together, have been respected and transformed into executive orders and instructions to the customs offices. I am convinced that will be the case here as well.

The two last questions were linked to Mercosur and related to standards and having a level playing field. It is important to note that there already is quite a big trade relationship between Ireland and Mercosur. It is worth almost €4 billion. We believe that with this agreement, there will be even more opportunities for all sectors in which Ireland is strong. Ireland is exporting machinery, electrical vehicle transport, medical and surgical equipment, pharmaceutical and chemicals, all of which are currently burdened by tariffs of up to 35%. These will go to zero.

I know the committee is mostly interested in agriculture. Currently, tariffs on EU agrifood exports to Mercosur are 55%. Those will also go to zero. I believe, knowing the quality of Irish products, that the same will happen as happened with Canada and that exports to these territories will increase.

Ireland currently exports to Mercosur countries meat and meat products worth €20 million, vegetables worth €10 million and beverages worth €22 million. How do we guarantee that these exports will not be offset by the members' concerns, which I fully understand, related to the level playing field element. First and foremost, the quota we negotiated is very small. In the EU, we currently consume some 6 million tonnes of beef. The quota, including the bones because we are talking about carcases, is 99,000 tonnes. As such, it is 72,000 tonnes of meat and even that is divided among four countries and relates to so-called prime "Hilton beef" and is frozen. It is really a very small quota.

We would guarantee that if the standards are not met, this food will simply not come to Europe. To do that we will, first, rely on European veterinarians who will do on-site inspections and check if the exporting slaughterhouses are respecting the deals and standards. They will be checked when they arrive at ports in Europe and by the importers. We are also making sure the safety net the Deputy referred to in the realm of €6.4 billion will be available in the unlikely event something goes wrong. We do not believe it will but in the unlikely event it does, it will be available.

In the next round, I am sure Mercosur will come up again, so I will explain in greater detail how this legal safeguard should work for Irish farmers.