“Two years on from the CETA deal we are still trying to tease out technical details,” said Brendan Gleeson from the Department of Agriculture, speaking at Bord Bia’s meat market seminar in Kildare today. “The latest development is that the certificate cleared yesterday. I expect the market should open and be ready to move in the first quarter of 2016.”

The news comes after Northern Ireland announced yesterday that it was the first European Union region to do beef business in Canada following the finalisation of certification protocols and procedures between the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) veterinary service and Canadian authorities.

Canada announced the end of its import ban on EU beef at the end of 2013 but that just enabled the beginning of the process to secure commercial approval. That required agreement of protocols and procedures by the veterinary service of the exporting state and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

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Canadian beef market to be slow burner