Officials from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay met with EU officials at the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels in the Berlaymont yesterday for talks with commissioners for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, and Agriculture, Phil Hogan, but news of a deal wasn’t forthcoming.

At the moment, issues such as the EU’s ethanol, sugar and beef market opening to South American companies remain the main obstacles in the Mercosur talks. Last month, the bloc offered Mercosur to import to the EU 70,000 metric tonnes of beef at reduced tariffs, causing Irish MEPs to say that the time is not right to secure such a deal as Brexit could affect Irish beef exports further.

Quotas for an extra 40,000t of poultry and 12,250t of pig meat have also been offered.

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Irish Minister of State Andrew Doyle told his EU colleagues there was a “very clear, immediate and significant threat”. Even so, Mercosur members thought the offer was “too low”.

The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has already claimed that the EU beef market is being sacrificed for the sake of the Mercosur trade deal. IFA president Joe Healy said any EU deal on beef with Brazil in the Mercosur negotiations was “toxic”.

He called on the EU Trade Commissioner Celia Maelstrom to come clean and reject the environmental destruction, failures on food safety and animal welfare, and slave labour associated with Brazilian beef.

Some larger EU member states seem to be willing to discuss an offer on 100,000 metric tonnes, but the Brazilian side expects a beef quota of at least 130,000 tonnes to be put up for discussion.

Copa and Cogeca have urged the EU not to increase its offer on agriculture in the trade talks. Speaking at a press event before the talks, Copa and Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said:

“The EU has given far too much on agriculture to the Mercosur countries in the negotiations, without getting much in return. A Joint Research Centre (JRC) report shows a potential trade deal could cost the EU agricultural sector over 7 billion euros”.

“The majority of EU beef, sugar, poultry and orange juice imports already come from these countries. Over 75% of beef imported into the EU, mainly high value cuts, are from Mercosur countries. For broilers, an extended offer in cuts could lead to a loss of outlets for 150 million broilers produced in the EU, reducing growth and jobs in our rural areas”, added Pesonen.

“The sugar and ethanol sectors are also heavily subsidised by Mercosur countries. These countries have not shown any commitment to reduce this. We consequently urge the EU to keep duties on imports in order to avoid oversupply on our domestic market and to ensure a level playing field”, Pesonen said.

He called on the EU to minimize market access for beef, sugar, poultry, ethanol, rice and orange juice imports to the EU in the talks.

“In view of the major uncertainties in the Brexit talks, combined with discussions on the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and EU budget, we reject any concessions in the talks. Farmers and their cooperatives should not have to pay the price of a potential trade deal with Mercosur countries in return for concessions in other sectors”, he concluded.