Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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79. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on whether the Mercosur trade deal will have negative effects for the agricultural community here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38169/24]

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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87. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department has carried out any research into the likely effects faced by the agricultural community if the Mercosur trade deal is ratified; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38168/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 79 and 87 together.

Political agreement was reached with Mercosur countries in June 2019. Due to additional concerns raised by a number of EU member states, including Ireland, on the strength of the environmental and sustainability provisions in the original agreement, the Commission and Mercosur recommenced negotiations in 2023 on a joint instrument aimed at addressing these concerns.

Beef consumption in the EU is approximately 6.5 million tonnes per annum. The original political agreement included a Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) of 99,000 tonnes of beef for the Mercosur. While this was disappointing, the TRQ proposed was far less than the 300,000 tonnes originally sought, and included conditionality around the share of fresh and frozen beef that had not been included in the original request.

Ireland had raised its concerns about the potential impact of significant beef concessions on the Irish and EU beef markets right throughout the negotiating process, through the Council of Ministers, through direct engagement with the relevant Commissioners for Agriculture and Trade. Ireland also collaborated closely with other Member States who shared those concerns. Indeed, the Tariff Rate Quota finally agreed would likely have been considerably higher without these efforts.

After the announcement of the agreement, the then Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, committed to a full Economic and Sustainability Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the agreement. The Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, in collaboration with my Department, commissioned this study, and my Department and Teagasc fed extensively into the work carried out by the consultants.

The study, which was published in July 2021, found that beef imports from the Mercosur countries would increase by around 53,000 tonnes. Assuming the additional imports were in high-end cuts only, and depending on other factors, producer returns in Ireland could fall by around 2%, due to the increase in imports to the EU. This would translate to a maximum reduction in the value of Irish beef output of between €44m and €55m.

To assist farmers should challenges arise a fund of €1bn was to be made available to offset any market disturbances associated with the agreement. In addition, the agreement included a safeguard mechanism which could be activated where necessary to protect our most vulnerable sectors from significant market impact arising from increased imports.

The agreement also provided new market opportunity for dairy and notably cheese, skimmed milk powder and infant formula, thus opening up potential for Irish exports to Mercosur countries. The Agreement included a Chapter on SPS standards and upheld the strict EU rules on SPS that protect food safety, animal and plant health and animal welfare, as well as EU consumer interests.

When the final text of the Agreement is presented to Member States, the Government’s position will be informed by its assessment of the additional sustainability and environmental commitments provisions included in the text, as well as by the findings of the Economic and Sustainability Impact Assessment.