Irish farmers should have no beef with the EU’s Mercosur trade deal

Mercosur (Southern Common Market) is the South American trade bloc. That’s Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela — although Venezuela is currently suspended.

It’s in the news because the EU has completed a trade deal with it. There are lots of benefits, but, in the give and take, beef farmers see themselves as losers. The facts are more complicated, but the politics are not.