Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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563. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the likely ratification procedure at EU and member state level for ratification of a final Mercosur trade agreement relating to market access, quotas and the elements that fall under exclusive EU-level competence and areas that require national-level approval; if she or her Government colleagues have carried out assessments to date on the scenario; if the Attorney General was consulted in this regard; and if Dáil Éireann will have to ratify elements of a final Mercosur agreement, including the provisional application of the agreement. [24547/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Common Commercial Policy is an exclusive competence of the European Union under the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. The Lisbon Treaty extended this competence to cover foreign direct investment, as well as making the European Parliament a co-legislator alongside the Council on trade matters. The European Commission acts as lead negotiator on behalf of all EU countries regarding trade agreements with non-EU countries. Member States (in Council) approve negotiating directives (or mandates) before negotiations begin, are kept informed of developments as the negotiations proceed and have final approval at Council.

The EU is currently negotiating a trade agreement with the four founding members of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay). If concluded an EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement would be the EU’s largest trade deal to date, four times the size of the trade agreement with Japan.

As with any Free Trade Agreement negotiations, Ireland, like all Member States, has defensive as well as offensive trade interests. We are mindful of the cumulative impact of EU FTAs on specific sectors like agriculture and the challenges they face. Officials from my Department continue to be engaged, through the Trade Policy Committee, in highlighting the importance of maintaining the balance between the EU’s defensive and offensive interests. Equally, when the Commission has reported on progress in these negotiations to Trade Ministers in Council, I have set out Ireland’s key interests. Furthermore insofar as our defensive interests in agriculture are concerned, both An Taoiseach and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine have also engaged with their counterparts.

The Commission may present some EU trade agreements as 'EU-only' meaning that all the policy areas they cover fall under the sole responsibility of the EU institutions. Other agreements may be presented as 'mixed' where they have areas of shared responsibility between the EU and Member States. Only at the conclusion of negotiations and when the Commission presents an Agreement to Council can an agreement be determined definitely as being 'EU-only' or ‘mixed’. Were a deal to be concluded between the EU and Mercosur in 2018, the relevant text would proceed to so-called “legal scrubbing”, and translation, a process which can take up to two years to complete. The ratification process regarding individual trade agreements must be taken on a case-by-case basis depending on the issues comprehended in the final agreement. Where appropriate, my Department seeks legal advice on the appropriate ratification process to follow in each case.

Mixed agreements enter into force only once each individual EU Member State has approved it in line with its own National procedures. As this process may take several years, the Council can decide to provisionally apply an agreement ('provisional application'). Provisional Application generally applies to those parts of the agreement over which the EU has exclusive competence. The extent of EU only competence was addressed comprehensively in the 2017 Opinion of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the EU-Singapore FTA case. Provisional Application requires the agreement by Council and ratification by the European Parliament.

As regards the more general issue of the benefits and opportunities arising from Free Trade Agreements, my Department is currently in the process of undertaking a comprehensive study which will examine in depth the economic impact and opportunities of existing and forthcoming EU Free Trade Agreements, including with Mercosur. The analysis from the study will inform the Department and relevant agencies in setting the policy framework required for Irish businesses to take full advantage of concluded trade agreements and preferential trade access, and to prepare for future opportunities; including Mercosur.