Speaking in advance of a meeting of the European Milk Board (EMB) in Brussels, the President of ICMSA said that he will be asking EMB to mount a major EU wide campaign to oppose the Mercosur agreement.
Pat McCormack, President of ICMSA, said that if the agreement is implemented, it will do ‘irreparable damage’ to the EU model of farming.
He also added that it ‘makes an absolute joke’ of the EU’s climate change credentials ‘which have been effectively set-aside for big business,’ he said.
The EMB represents mainly dairy farmers across the EU, but the vast majority of whom also have a beef enterprise, and these businesses will suffer severely, McCormack said.
'Very Concerned'
McCormack rejected the idea that EU farmers have to meet “exacting standards” which will increase in the context of climate change, “and yet are expected to compete with South American products with no such standards”.
“If national and EU politicians think that the Paris accord will be implemented by the South Americans in the context of the Mercosur deal, they are either very naïve, they ignore history, or are simply ignoring the facts so that big business can prosper,” he claimed
He suggested that the EU and the Irish Government have been “scrambling for cover” in recent days with commitments on climate change from the South Americans and economic assessments which “farmers and the wider community do not believe”, McCormack said.
He added that he was “very concerned” that the Government will support this agreement “to boost the coffers of such industries as financial services at the expense of rural businesses”.
“EU farmers are fed up at this stage of listening to platitudes from politicians regarding their support for farmers and rural areas,” he explained.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
