The EU recently agreed a trade deal with Japan. It’s good news for farmers – Japan is one of the world’s most sought-after food destinations, with an affluent population of almost 130m people.

The country is only about 40% self-sufficient in food. In the deal, tariffs on imported European cheese will reduce from 40% to zero, and beef tariffs from 38.5% to 9.5%

It’s a bit surprising that not all Ireland’s MEPs supported the trade deal, when looked at in that light. The four Sinn Féin MEPs (Matt Carthy, Liadh ni Riada, Lynn Boylan and Martina Anderson) all opposed it, as did Luke Ming Flanagan.

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Perhaps it was anti-globalisation that the five MEPs were advocating – a stance of the hard-left and the hard-right, for opposing reasons. It’s not really trade deals between first-world countries that exacerbate inequity, although that’s another argument.

More locally, cattle and sheep farmers in Matt and Ming’s stronghold in the west and border regions will not be impressed with the vote the pair cast.