Taoiseach leaves door open for Government to support Mercosur trade deal

The Taoiseach started day two of his official state visit to China with a meeting with Chairman Zhao.

The Taoiseach has left the door open to the Government supporting the Mercosur trade deal.

The Government has long opposed the deal, which would see the EU sign a trade deal with South American countries. Farmers here fear the deal will flood the Irish market with cheap, substandard beef.

Top EU officials had hoped to sign the EU-Mercosur in Brazil last month after more than 25 years of negotiations, but a vote in Europe was postponed until this week. 

Reports on Wednesday suggested that Italy plans to back the deal, paving the way for an agreement. The EU has suggested it would give member states early access to some agriculture funds from the 2028-2034 EU budget, a proposal the Taoiseach said was "significant".

Speaking in Shanghai, Micheál Martin said that work is ongoing on the deal, but did not definitively say Ireland would vote against the deal.

"We're working with like-minded countries, and have been including Italy, including France, in respect of Mercosur, and significant safeguards have been negotiated over the past 12 months," Mr Martin said. 

"Those discussions and developments are still awaited in respect of additional safeguards and the announcement yesterday in respect to an improvement in terms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is also welcome.

"But the issue will be, will there be a blocking minority on Friday? The government will continue to engage with our partners and Europe on this, and we [will] make the decision towards the end of the week."

Asked if he was ruling out Ireland voting for the deal, Mr Martin said that "there's further work to be done before the discussions across government on this".

"We have concerns with Mercosur, but a lot of progress has been made over the last 12 months, that has to be said. And there may be more by the end of the day or tomorrow, in terms of some of the issues that have been discussed on them in and on work around safeguards."

Asked if his government members, particularly independent junior ministers, would support the approval of the deal, Mr Martin said that all in government had to work together.

"We have to work collectively in government, and my view is we have to think of Ireland into the future, and we have to look at Ireland. What's in the best interest of Irish farmers, because we've other negotiations to be had. 

"We've made progress on a number of issues in agriculture, but we have significant more progress to make, particularly on the income side, and so we'll see where we are with our partners towards the end of the week."

Mr Martin said that while he had not seen criticism from the Irish Farmers Association that improvements in the CAP were "cynical" in light of the Mercosur deal, the concessions from Europe were "welcome".

"Ultimately, CAP is a very important issue, so any improvement has to be welcomed, because the presentation in the first draft of the (EU) multi-annual financial framework was not where we wanted it to be in terms of Irish agriculture and Irish farming. 

"And at the end of the day, the income to Irish farmers is key. And so we want to make sure that we're in a strong negotiating position, even to build on what has been done, because we were about...80% of what the last CAP was. I mean, in a year's time, Irish farmers wouldn't be happy if that's where we ended up.

"I don't think we should dismiss what was announced yesterday."