What is the Mercosur trade deal, and what would it mean for Irish farmers?

The Mercosur trade deal between the European Union and Latin American countries cannot be approved in its current form, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told reporters at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday that was besieged by farmers’ protests. The deal has been in negotiations for two decades, and supporters had hoped the agreement with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay could be concluded after new environmental protections were sought. However, it has been fiercely opposed by many European farming organisations as they fear it will expose them to low-cost competition from countries where they say environmental rules are much looser. What is the Mercosur deal? It is a trade agreement which finally got across the line in June 2019 that was due to scale-up huge volumes of trade between the EU and countries in South America. What was most controversial was 99,000 tonnes of South American beef was to be allowed into the European market every year. Taking 20 years to hammer ...