MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Irish farmers call on Commissioner Hogan to stop Malmstrom yielding to Mercosur
“Ireland, using all diplomatic and political channels, and Commissioner Hogan need to say bluntly: this has to stop.” Irish Farmers National Livestock Chairman Angus Woods has said the break in Mercosur talks until Friday is an opportunity for Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan to face down the Trade Commissioner and force a rethink on the sell-out of beef farmers.
He said, “Commissioner Malmstrom has already conceded way too much in the giveaway of an additional 70,000t of EU beef market access. Ireland, using all diplomatic and political channels, and Commissioner Hogan need to say bluntly: this has to stop.”
Woods said talk of the EU Commission renegotiating existing TRQ (tariff rate quotas) and giving further concessions to the Brazilians is nothing short of a three-card trick, “Commissioner Hogan must dig in and stop Commissioner Malmstrom in her tracks from conceding on the double to Brazil.”
The IFA Livestock Chairman said, “The negotiating strategy flies in the face of everything that the EU stands for, and what is happening in terms of Brexit.”
He accused the Trade Commissioner of blatantly undermining European policy and values on the environment and animal welfare.
“One arm of the Commission is prepared to do this deal and undermine the environment and animal welfare, while European farmers are asked to play their part on climate change and maintain the highest welfare standards,” he said.
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Read all commentsWasting your time Angus and Phil, the Brussels junta won't take a blind bit of notice...
Feb 02nd, 2018 - 11:55 am 0You know... The thing about Trade Blocks, is that they are not dealing with -Proportion relevant to the globe, regarding the size of countries, their population and aptitude-. And I mean it in terms of fairness. If for example we are going to be fair about an item like potatoes for example, and Ireland grows them with more difficulty than lets say Uruguay, we should take that into consideration, and we should also take into consideration the production output commensurately fair to the world or trade block consumption, so we can spread it out even among the regions of the planet best suited for that production, in quantity and labor by population. It wouldn't be fair for example that Argentina supplies more beef than America does simply because America has more grazing land, yet maybe it's fair that Argentina produces more wool than Scotland or Ireland, because they have that much more adequate geography. We can't be talking about global fairness and practicality and not be thinking in terms of the planet as a whole. We shouldn't be fighting and negotiating against a country's output when the product is ideal for production in that country, and on top of it are far behind production, while the other country has monopolized it just because they already have cornered the market or are more industrially capable. If a country like Argentina would be more sensibly a larger producer of olives than California is, even though California has started already, we should support and make it easier for Argentina to develop and grow its olive production as it would be an excellent olive producer.
Feb 02nd, 2018 - 09:26 pm 0The world needs to stop being a financial competition for crying out loud !!
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