A cattle ranch in Argentina. Extra South American beef will enter the EU market but the amounts involved will be limited under the Mercosur deal. Photograph: Sebastian Lopez Brach/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The debate over the Mercosur trade agreement has led to warnings of a flood of imports of cheap South American beef and poultry in the EU, to the detriment of Irish farmers.
The deal has now been approved by European Union (EU) member states under a qualified majority vote but must still be approved by the European Parliament. But what exactly is in the deal in relation to beef and how can we assess its impact.
The current position
The four Mercosur countries involved in the proposed trade deal with the EU – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay already export beef to the EU market.
This came to just over 200,000 tonnes in 2024. These target two markets – the higher value one for fresh and chilled cuts and the lower value frozen beef market, mainly for further processing.
There are high tariffs on imports of beef into the EU from countries with which it does not have a trade deal – it varies from product to product but is often in the 40 per cent plus range.
[ European Parliamen
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