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IFA president Joe Healy has called UK no-deal tariff proposals disastrous for Irish farming.
Healy said that exposed sectors such as beef would not survive tariffs in a no-deal scenario. “We export over 50% of our beef to the UK. If this is subject to tariffs, it will be a direct hit of almost €800m on the sector,” he said.
The UK government has proposed that WTO tariffs would apply post-Brexit, but allowed for temporary tariff-free trade across the Irish border.
This proposal has yet to be accepted by the EU but both the ICMSA and the ICSA have said that the proposals confirmed farmers’ worst fears on a no-deal Brexit scenario.
The ICMSA president, Pat McCormack, said that tariffs would be “catastrophic” and that the level of tariffs applied would make trade on Irish beef and dairy products unviable.
The impact on prices was also highlighted by the ICSA president Patrick Kent.
Beef contracts
He said that in the short-term beef contracts that had been signed with supermarkets would likely be honoured but that the beef industry as a whole faced calamity.
“It is certain that these tariffs will soon begin to cause calamity for our beef exports,” Kent said.
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