Ifac, the farm accountants, has recently held a number of discussions with its Washington-based counterpart on how US farming is going and the likely effects of the Trump tariffs and the Chinese retaliations.

The sessions made for fascinating listening, especially for us in Ireland who are so dependent on world markets.

The last time Donald Trump was US president, there was also damage done to US agriculture. A special compensation package was developed to compensate for the damage caused, the amount was US$28 billion(approx €24.5bn).

We were informed that at least the same is expected to be on the table this time.

Practically all the major farming states vote Republican and would certainly have voted for Trump for president.

Loyalty under this regime will certainly be rewarded, so we should expect a major package to compensate for the tariffs that apply to US exports to China. These are now 140% on maize, wheat, chicken, beef and soya.

China is, or at least was, the United States’ largest foreign market for farm products. It’s been replaced by Brazil in all of these key products – even maize.

But the American surplus, especially of feed grains, has to go somewhere and if not directly to Europe then to its third country markets. Europe is a net importer of maize and soya. All European grain will inevitably suffer unless firm action is taken – the signal needs to be sent now. There are several approaches that could be considered.

Under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, countries can take protective action in the event of a threat of significant market disruption.

The large-scale diversion of US product would certainly qualify under this heading, though how much importance we should attach to the WTO in today’s circumstances is a valid question.

Nevertheless, the European Commission has a duty to safeguard market stability. Member states, including Ireland, have a duty to request the European Commission to take action in good time.

We already have Europe saying that there is no question of sacrificing Europe’s food safety standards in pursuit of a trade deal with the US.

Standards such as hormone-treated beef and chlorine-washed chicken were, as usual, trotted out. We should add to this list GM-produced grain to recognise Europe’s outlawing of this technology, which has so enhanced productivity in both the US and South America.

Future grain prices are now down to levels seen before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Fertiliser prices are almost double and other costs are up substantially. We shouldn’t wonder why farmers are exiting tillage and that arable land is being converted to solar.