Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 513: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will report on his discussions at the EU Council meeting of 14 April 2011 regarding the threat the Mercosur talks pose to Ireland's beef industry and Ireland's concerns in this area; and the outcome of these discussions. [9377/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I asked for this topic to be added to the Agenda of the April meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers because of my deep concerns about the potential impact on EU and Irish agriculture of a trade deal with Mercosur. I wanted to reinforce the message with my Ministerial colleagues from other Member States that parts of the agriculture industry in Ireland and in other regions of the EU were under threat from a deal with Mercosur. I made the point that this was particularly the case for the beef sector in Ireland where 80% of production is exported. This industry has been built up over decades and we cannot allow it to be sacrificed in an unbalanced deal. I insisted that it would be unacceptable to make any offers to Mercosur without prior sight of the assessment and a full discussion at Council.

I was heartened by the level of support I received from other Member States for my comments. They too questioned the speed at which these talks were progressing and supported my call for transparency and a thorough discussion of the impact assessment before any offers are considered. A number of my colleagues expressed concerns about the impact of a deal for other agricultural products including fruit and vegetables, wine, cereals and ethanol and called for protection for the high environmental and social standards of EU production against imported products that are subject to less onerous requirements.

I also noted the response of EU Agriculture Commissioner Ciolos, who said that there was no question of offers being exchanged at this point. He said that it was important first to confirm the level of ambition of the Mercosur side and this would be done at the next round of negotiations in May and that the Commission was striving for a balanced approach with equivalent ambition from Mercosur in key sectors. He said the EU agriculture offer must be prudent and compatible with the CAP; in this regard the EU had both defensive and offensive interests. The Commissioner confirmed that the preliminary results of the impact assessment would be released at the end of April and that market access offers would be shared with Member States before they were exchanged with Mercosur.

Preliminary reports of the impact analysis have since been released by the Commission and these confirm my concerns that a Mercosur deal would damage EU and Irish agriculture, with the Irish beef sector a particular casualty. I have asked the Commission to produce the full report as a matter of urgency so that it can be debated thoroughly and comprehensively with the EU Agriculture Council and directly with the Commission.

The initial results bear out the need for extreme caution in these negotiations and for consistency in policies at EU level. Now that the European Council has acknowledged the importance of the EU agriculture sector as a key driver for the success of the EU 2020 strategy, we need to ensure that our policies are consistent and coherent with each other. A trade agreement with Mercosur that would allow large quantities of South American food into the EU high-value beef market, displacing Irish and European production, is not consistent with the ambition of using EU agriculture to drive economic recovery.