Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 May 2018
49. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the estimated effect on Irish farming of the go-ahead recently given by the EU to begin trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand which are stated to be leading to free trade agreements with both nations, especially in the context of Mercosur. [23722/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraWe heard recently that the EU is now entering into trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand and that this will lead to a new free trade arrangement between both nations and the EU, especially in the context of what is happening in regard to Mercosur. It is raising some concerns for the farming community and I would like to hear the Minister's view on the effects that will have on Irish farming as we move ahead in the coming years.
The development of free trade agreements between the European Union and Australia-New Zealand is at an early stage. Last week, the European Council authorised the Commission to open trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand and adopted negotiating directives for each of the negotiations.
Trade agreements with both countries would aim primarily at further reducing existing barriers to trade, removing customs duties on goods and giving better access for services and public procurement in Australia and New Zealand.
Ireland already has strong relationships with both countries and enjoys good co-operation on both a bilateral and multilateral level. We are also open to such trade deals. For example, Ireland would have strong offensive interests in Australia for pigmeat and spirit drinks. However, and as with any trade deal, there are also defensive interests in any future negotiations and these must be balanced and have due regard to special sensitive sectors for Ireland such as beef, sheepmeat and dairy.
The mandates as they are do not envisage full liberalisation of trade in agricultural products, which are foreseen as benefiting from specific treatment.
During the course of the upcoming negotiations, as with any free trade agreement negotiations, I will insist that they are handled appropriately and in a manner that safeguards the interests of the Irish agrifood sector, particularly its most sensitive sectors such as beef and dairy. This stance will be even more important in the light of the ongoing Mercosur negotiations. I believe also that full account must be taken of the findings of the Commission’s own assessment of the cumulative impact of trade deals on the agrifood sector and the potentially very damaging impact of Brexit on an already delicately balanced EU beef market.
I understand the negotiations are at a very early stage but the Minister will appreciate people's concerns when they hear about it. There is an irony in all of this because as an exporting country we are trying to export our beef and dairy products to every corner of the world yet we have this belief that anything that comes near us is a problem. We will have to have a conversation at some stage as to where that will work out. The difficulty people had with Mercosur was that the 70,000 tonnes of beef that was supposed to come in are the prime cuts, but that is also where we market our product. That is the problem we have with it.
In regard to Australia, the lamb and sheep sector is the one about which we would have the most concern. Following our previous conversations, they are the farmers who are under the most pressure from a primary producer's point of view. There are concerns that if there were a free trade deal with Australia or New Zealand, it would end up having a very negative impact on our sheep farmers who would not be able to sustain that.
The byword here is vigilance in the context of the negotiations. As the Deputy said, we export our products in the agrifood space to more than 180 countries around the world so it is not a sustainable position to take the view that trade is only in one direction. Bearing that in mind, it is not envisaged that there would be full trade liberalisation on products in which we would have a specific interest.
Trade negotiations by their nature are protracted and difficult. We only have to reflect on the aforementioned Mercosur negotiations, which have been going on for over a decade and are not concluded. This is very much at the early stage. I know the connotations in Irish farming minds when we consider Australia and New Zealand are substantially sheepmeat, dairy in particular and also beef producers. Given that full trade liberalisation is not envisaged, that does not mean we need to be any less vigilant. There are opportunities as well. We export to those countries also. In any trade negotiations it is about finding an agreement-----
Thank you, Minister.
-----that, on balance, works for all sides but we will be particularly vigilant on those issues that will be of concern to agriculture.
It is about a balance and trying to find what is in it for both sides of the table. The Minister stated in his reply that there may be export opportunities in terms of spirit drinks. I understand we are already exporting some product to these countries and I have been told there is quite an opportunity in that area. How much work has been done by Bord Bia or by the Department to try to open up that market and create more opportunities, particularly in the niche sectors there? We have the big brands on the world market but we have many smaller brands that are getting to the stage where they are starting to export and seek markets. I wonder what opportunities may come from any trade in respect of that.
Bord Bia has just concluded a market prioritisation in terms of where we will drive our focus for various product areas, whether it is seafood, the drinks industry, prepared consumer foods, beef, pork meat, sheepmeat, the dairy sector or whatever. That will inform the Department and will primarily inform the industry as to where best it should focus because that is quite a detailed piece of research. It is important to bear in mind that we live in a world where there are significant actors on the global stage who are using a vocabulary that is hostile to trade. On the global trade, there are talks about a trade war between China and the United States over steel and aluminium. That could quickly spill over into having a damaging impact on us because the EU has responded in the context of steel and has put products like Bourbon and Harley-Davidson on a reciprocal trade blacklist for US imports. That could very quickly spiral out of control in terms of our exports to the US.
We are probably one of the most globalised economises in our agrifood space and the last thing we need is people putting up barriers to trade. We need to negotiate as best we possibly can to maximise the opportunities but in any negotiations it cannot all be upside for us and downside for everybody else.
Thank you, Minister.
We try to negotiate the best possible deals, bearing in mind that we pool our sovereignty in that area with the European Union. It negotiates the trade access for us. If we were a small player globally outside the European Union we would be-----
Swallowed up.
We would not be a party to trade agreements. Our industry would be very much in the dark ages because we would not have access to the markets that we have currently as a member of the European Union.
I think I will start doing some negotiating myself to get people around this place to stick to the time.
We were not too bad.
You were not too bad, Deputy Kenny.
