Mercosur deal worries farmers

Despite opposition from farm organisations, the European Commission is pressing ahead with its Mercosur free trade deal with South America. It is suggesting tariff-free or tariff reduced access for 99,000 tonnes of beef, with the lion’s share of this allocation going to Brazil.

This is controversial because of the threat it poses to the European beef industry. The Commission has received protests about its approach from more than 300 organisations, including COPA as the umbrella organisation for farm unions.

However, the Commission is determined to secure a deal by the end of July. It knows this will not happen without giving way over beef, which the

South Americans view as crucial.

All the beef must be guaranteed free of hormone growth promoters but this will not be a major challenge for the countries exporting from South America – Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

There will also be generous so-called tariff rate quotas for poultry and ethanol in the deal.

Trump tirade

Donald Trump used the G7 summit in Japan to berate many other countries over their trade policies towards the US.

His list for attack included China, Canada and the EU – but it was the United States that faced criticism in the wider forum of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Its agriculture committee met in Geneva and the agenda included the aid package given by the Trump administration to farmers to offset the impact of its trade disputes, most notably with China.

US farmers, who are generally pro-Trump, received a market facilitation package worth a declared 16 billion US dollars.

Washington assured the WTO this was not trade distorting, therefore not in contravention of WTO rules, because it was a one-off payment to offset losses from a trade dispute.

However, a number of WTO members, including the EU, Australia and China, have challenged the US to explain the numbers in more detail. Deal date

The gloves really are now off in the battle to be leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister.

Boris Johnson’s commitment is now “do or die” to leave the EU on October 31, with or without a deal.

This could be a problem for UK farmers who could be left facing high tariffs to export to the EU-27 and low or zero tariffs on third country imports as part of UK trade deals.

Picture: Getty. South American beef could be on its way to the EU in the Mercosur deal.