Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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305. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the efforts being made to oppose the Mercosur Deal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13988/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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While the operational aspects of the transfer of particular files and functions will be managed between my Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade over the coming period, in line with the established cross-government protocols, I am continuing to oversee the government’s handling of the EU-Mercosur Agreement. In this regard, I am working closely with the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, who under the Programme for Government assumes the overall leadership role on matters of trade policy and negotiation.

The Government is committed to supporting free, fair and open trade. Our EU membership makes us part of the growing network of EU Free Trade Agreements, supporting more opportunity for exports and investment, helping support jobs and growth at home, maintaining strict EU standards on food safety, animal and plant health, and supporting better environmental and human rights standards around the world.

We have always been clear, however, that such agreements must defend our most vulnerable sectors and that our farmers’ livelihoods must not be undermined through weak or ineffective environmental standards in other countries.

In regard to the EU-Mercosur agreement, in addition to our specific sector sensitivities such as agriculture, Ireland has repeatedly raised concerns at EU level regarding the strength of the trade and sustainability commitments in the original agreement negotiated in 2019. As a response to those concerns, the European Commission engaged in further negotiations with Mercosur on a new, interpretative legal instrument aimed at addressing and strengthening sustainability commitments. On 6 December 2024, the European Commission announced that it had concluded negotiations with Mercosur.

I wish to assure the Deputy that my officials and I have continued to engage at EU level at every opportunity – with both the European Commission and with counterparts in EU Member States – to voice our concerns in relation to the EU-Mercosur Agreement. Such engagements have taken place at the Foreign Affairs Council (Trade) with other EU Member State Ministers, as well as at meetings of officials in the Trade Policy Committee. I and officials have emphasised Ireland's requirements for credible, legally binding commitments on matters relating to trade and sustainable development, including climate, biodiversity, and deforestation protections, as well as protections and assurances in regard to incomes of farmers in Ireland.

Furthermore, in December I met virtually with the new Commissioner for Trade, Maroš Šefcovic, along with other EU Trade Ministers, where I outlined my concerns over possible unintended consequences of the agreement. The Commissioner has committed to travel to Ireland to meet with stakeholders, which I welcome as an important opportunity to engage constructively with the Commission as we seek clarifications and assurances on the legally binding nature of the commitments in the agreement.

Since the Commission announced the conclusion of negotiations, officials from my Department and other departments, including the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, have been carefully analysing the text of the additional legal instrument and have engaged with the Commission to interrogate the outcome of negotiations to assess if our concerns have been adequately addressed.

Engagements with the Commission are continuing as we seek sufficient clarification on the priority areas of climate, biodiversity, deforestation and the protection of farmer's incomes in advance of any final decision by Government. In advance of receiving the additional clarifications and assurances that we require on all of these issues, Ireland's position on the EU-Mercosur Agreement will remain as clearly outlined in the Programme for Government.