Thursday, March 28, 2024

Irish say suspend NZ trade talks

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Irish dairy farming leader John Comer wants the European Union to suspend its free-trade talks with New Zealand, arguing a deal would be bad for the 16,500 milk producers he represents.
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Comer, who is president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), said his members had enough on their plates coping with the potential loss of direct access to the United Kingdom market without having to worry about what an EU-NZ free-trade agreement would do to their business.

“The whole dynamic within Europe has changed dramatically with the UK’s Brexit vote, leaving us in a state of flux and transition which might last for the next four to five years,” he said.

“Being the most westerly member state in the EU, we therefore feel very vulnerable to potential EU trade deals, in relation to which we can’t see any upside at all.

“The population of the EU is about to change dramatically with the loss of the UK’s 64 million consumers, all of whom could soon be behind a tariff barrier so far as we’re concerned.

“We’re not afraid of competition, of course, but unless we can get some guarantees of equivalent standards being applied to EU importers then we feel we will be at a disadvantage. At present, we don’t see those equivalent standards being put in place.

“I know NZ has a good track record in terms of food safety, obviously, but I don’t believe there are equivalent measures between NZ and the EU for farming sustainability and environmental impacts. As such, we would simply be disadvantaged in terms of our costs under an EU-NZ free-trade agreement.”

Having already given their support to the anti-free trade complaints made recently by Polish dairy farmers concerning a NZ deal, Comer and his ICMSA executive took their case to the Irish government last week, basically lobbying for their view to be represented at the next EU farm council meeting in Brussels on March 6.

“We met our minister of agriculture (Michael Creed) and our minister for the environment (Denis Naughten) and it was very a useful session, particularly in relation to free-trade deals,” Comer said.

Ironically, despite the new Irish objections, the EU’s umbrella body for farmers and farm co-operatives, Copa-Cogeca, had just issued a positive comment concerning members of the European Parliament giving their formal approval for the new EU trade deal with Canada while also calling for progress to be made in relation to EU-Japan trade negotiations.

Its comment did stress the need for certain rules to be obeyed, however.

“In these turbulent times, the EU needs to send a clear message to the world that its single market remains open to the global economy so long as a level playing field is secured,” Copa-Cogeca secretary-general Pekka Pesonen said.

“In particular, we welcome the fact that our EU production and quality standards like Geographical Indications and our safety standards (full traceability of cattle and hormone-free beef) have been recognised under the (Canadian) agreement as this protects our quality products from imitations.

“This is a good step forward for trade based on fair rules and we are now looking forward to other trade negotiations, such as between the EU and Japan”.

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