Mercosur deal: EU farm leaders to meet new agri commissioner

Farm organisation leaders from around the EU, including president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Francie Gorman, will meet the incoming European Commissioner for Agriculture on the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement. The farm leaders, as part of the EU farm organisation Copa Cogeca, will hold a series of “high-level discussions” in Brussels tomorrow (Thursday, November 28) on the trade deal, which is looking more and more likely to ratified in the very near future. Gorman said that, as part of the meeting with new Commissioner for Agriculture Christophe Hansen, he will be raising “very real concerns” about the impact of the deal for the Irish beef and poultry sectors if passed. The deal would provide for an additional 99,000t of beef from the South American Mercosur trading bloc to enter the EU tariff free. The farmer representatives are also set to meet with officials from the European Commission’s Directorate-General (DG) for Trade, the DG responsible for the trade deal, to ...