Credibility of Government and EU will sink or swim on Mercusor

On one hand, the EU wants to load more regulation on its own farmers in the name of sustainability and on the other, it appears happy to conclude a deal that will see lower-standard beef enter the EU market with little regard for the environment.   
What the compensation proposal actually represents is an admission, on the part of the Commission, and its negotiators, that the agreement would specifically undermine the EU’s indigenous farming sector. The so-called compensation package serves to sweeten the deal to get the agreement over the line. Long after the ‘sugar rush’ of this compensation package has been spent what, then, is left of the EU’s indigenous farming community? How will these imported products impact those produced – to higher and costlier standards – across the EU? 
Implementing/imposing regulation on our farmers while offering a temporary fill-up through one-off compensation packages is not acceptable, and will not be accepted. How can they ‘give’ with one hand and take away so much away with the other, while deep in negotiations with an external trading bloc?

The Commission is then able to hand access to the Mercosur markets to the EU car, tech, pharma and financial sectors and get cheaper food produced to lower standards for its consumers. It’s ‘win-win’ for them and ‘lose-lose’ for EU farmers and anyone who wants to see the rainforests protected from the incredible clearances that South American farming is predicated on.    

The single biggest disappointment in the debate around Mercosur is the deafening silence from our environmental lobby who seem more fixated by whether an acre in Tipperary could support one or one-and-a-half cows than they are by these developments. If Mercosur goes through, then South American beef production will increase to meet EU demand and that production will be at the expense of their forests and global climate stability. We know this because that is precisely the way that existing South American beef production has developed. The Commission’s own data verifies this. According to stats from DG 

Agri/European Commission, between 1990 and 2021, for example, methane emissions from the EU livestock sector fell by 25 per cent while Brazil's increased by 48 per cent. The EU’s nitrous oxide emissions fell by 22 per cent, while Brazil’s increased by 49 per cent over the same period. EU farmers have stepped up to the plate and it feels like our politicians may well sell us out. 

Question time 

A simple question must be asked: If the EU is serious about the Green Deal, the Farm to Fork strategy, and climate change, how can it be even contemplating a Mercusor agreement? The contradictions are beyond reason and if the EU signs up, its credibility on environmental matters will be zero. 
The Irish Government has been silent on this matter in recent weeks, but it must indicate that – even if the French ‘cover’ is withdrawn – Ireland will absolutely not reduce its opposition to an agreement that is without any environmental merit at all, and detrimentally impact indigenous EU beef production probably forever.  Irish farmers will be watching closely the position of our Government. We want a level playing field; will they support us, or will they sell us out?