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On Tuesday, both the IFA and the ICSA met European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan, as well as Breffni Carpenter from the Department of Agriculture in Brussels. They also met with Irish MEPs on Tuesday evening. The role of Irish food, and in particular Irish beef, played a significant role in the talks.
IFA livestock chair Angus Woods said: “Europe needs to reassess its approach to trade negotiations for agriculture and particularly the vulnerable beef sector”, especially in the wake of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
The vote has created uncertainty for a market which buys some 250,000t of Irish beef. On the back of this, Woods said that European should carefully consider its future with trade deals.
“A free trade policy with world market prices will not work for the European beef sector. Just look at the damage that policy has inflicted on our grain sector,” he said.
Woods said the trade deal between the EU and the US (TTIP) and the EU and the Mercosur countries in South America could destroy the Irish beef sector and urged the Irish Government to defend the sector.
“The IFA is clear that the EU or Irish Government should not countenance a trade deal with TTIP or Mercosur that would damage farmers and Irish beef exports on the EU market. A Mercosur trade deal would be unequivocally negative for Irish and European agriculture and would particularly damage Ireland’s important beef sector,” he said.
Standards
ICSA president Paddy Kent said Ireland’s livestock sector is vulnerable from the threat of trade deals with larger trading blocs.
“We have to defend EU standards of food production. Our farmers cannot compete with industrial scale production units in North or South America and it is clear that the livestock sector is very vulnerable to trade deals, particularly in the context of Brexit,” Kent said.
Thomas Hubert contributed to the writing of this story
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