Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 January 2026
806. Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the concessions and safeguards which have been included in the updated Mercosur trade agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4010/26]
View answerThe Government has been very clear about Ireland’s concerns in relation to the EU-Mercosur Agreement and has expressed these consistently over a number of years, particularly in relation to the Agreement's potential impact on the beef sector, the strength of its climate and sustainability commitments, and the food safety and environmental standards enforced by Mercosur countries.
The regulation on safeguards for agricultural products has been agreed between the Council and Parliament and final formalities are expected to be completed by the Parliament shortly. The regulation makes commitments regarding automatic triggers for safeguard investigations based on import volumes and prices, quicker time-frames for investigations, and monitoring and reporting on import levels by the Commission.
The final safeguards triggers followed negotiations between the Council - which had initially set triggers at 10% - and European Parliament, which provisionally agreed to 8% following trilogue negotiations with Council. Following an intervention from Commissioner Šefčovič at a meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers which I participated in on 7 January, the proposed triggers for activating these safeguards will be set at a further reduced threshold of 5% of import volume increase or 5% price reduction at individual member state level over a three-year average period.
While improvements have been made to the overall Agreement, including through the proposed regulation on safeguards, we continue to have significant concerns relating to the standards under which imports would be produced, and the impact that this Agreement could have on farming incomes.
Ultimately, the Government has concluded that the recent additional commitments were not sufficient to satisfy the concerns of our farmers and our consumers. Therefore, we have followed through on our commitment under the Programme for Government and taken a decision to vote against the EU-Mercosur Agreement.
