After more than 25 years of tortuous on-and-off negotiations, the European Union reached a comprehensive trade deal in December with Mercosur, the South American bloc encompassing Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. While Europe’s manufacturing sector has welcomed the deal, it is vehemently opposed by farmers and environmentalists. The key sticking point centers on access to EU markets for South American agricultural products. The tradeoff has raised the ire of farmers in countries like Ireland, Poland and France—the EU’s largest beef producer—who face being undercut by South American producers benefiting from much lower costs. He estimates that the quotas agreed to in the pact are “equivalent to less than 2 burgers and 2 poultry fillets per EU citizen per year.”