Mercosur is South America's leading trading bloc
AGRICULTURE lobby groups Farmers For Action and Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers Association (NIAPA) have united to lobby Europe on key issues around Brexit, free trade deals and farm gate prices.
And following a constructive meeting with Colette FitzGerald, head of the European Commission Office in Northern Ireland, the bodies accepted that their voice is now being heard.
The two organisations insisted to the EU Commission representative that, come what may with Brexit, there must be no hard Irish border, describing this as "a massive step back in time".
With free trade deals now the buzz words in Brussels and Westminster and the EU currently putting a huge effort into South America's leading trading bloc Mercosor and other major world trade deals, the farm groups forcefully pointed out to Ms FitzGerald that neither the EU nor the current Westminster government can complete free trade deals where commonly produced staples by current or potential new partners end up in food swaps (ships passing in the night between two trading countries carrying the same food cargo), as this makes a nonsense of the Paris climate change agreement and those who participated.
"The message was clear, either the Paris climate change agreement was nonsense or the current and future planned free trade deals are nonsense, where food is concerned most certainly the farmers at either end of these food swaps will and are suffering financially, while the food corporates, facilitated by governments and the EU, continue to throw caring for the planet to the wind and fill their pockets," the groups said.
On the case for legislation on farm gate prices, the two groups made it clear that the EU is not delivering on its Treaty promises – that rural dwellers should be properly rewarded for their work.
"In short, when the market is not working, then clearly there is a case for state intervention, thus our ongoing work to have a legislation bill complete and ready for Stormont once it returns," they said.
The groups also made clear that such is the increasing control of the corporate food giants across the EU and the UK, following Brexit legislation is still a must for Northern Ireland if it is to succeed and prosper.
Ms FitzGerald, in her role as the bridge between the EU and Northern Ireland citizens, sought to clarify the EU’s approach to the Brexit Article 50 negotiations and the time table ahead.
She explained that Michel Barnier and his team will work through this month and will again meet David Davis and his team on August 28, after which Mr Barnier will prepare a report on the state of negotiations for the next meeting of the European Council (Heads of State) in October.
At this point the Member States will judge whether enough progress has been made on the divorce settlement to begin to plan discussions on the UK’s future relationship with the EU after Brexit and its March 2019 deadline.
Colette FitzGerald explained that an important part of her role is to make regular reports to Brussels and pledged that she would include Northern Ireland Farm Groups' three extremely important issues in her discussions.
