‘EU will protect us in any beef war’
THE EU Commission will back the Irish beef industry in the event of a no-deal Brexit resulting in an agri-food trade war, Simon Coveney has said.
Amid reports the UK government has been threatening to favour Brazilian beef instead of Irish following Brexit, the Tánaiste told the Dáil that both the EU Commission and the EU-27 recognised the vulnerability of Irish beef farmers.
‘We have been aware for many months of a threat to agri-food,’ but added that the sabre-rattling over Brazilian shipments was just one of ‘various rumours’. Fianna Fáil immediately accused him of adopting the attitude that it will be ‘all right on the night’.
But Mr Coveney responded: ‘At one point I was being informed the UK was going to look at no tariffs at all, then we had Michael Gove saying he intended to impose WTO tariffs.’ He said the Commission stood ready to back up the Irish beef industry if an all-out economic war on foodstuffs erupts.
‘The EU Commission has made it very clear that they will support us in ensuring that we can, if it comes to it, support and protect the sector to make sure it survives through a Brexit transition period,’ Mr Coveney said.
The Commission recognised the vulnerability of Ireland when it came to the agri-food dependency on British markets. ‘But we are, of course, all working to ensure that a no-deal Brexit does not happen.’
Fianna Fáil deputy leader Dara Calleary said the beef sector could become ‘the latest pawn in this Brexit debacle’. The UK government was suggesting the introduction of quotas to allow produce into the UK without tariffs in the event of no deal.
‘The suggestion being picked up from a speech made by secretary of state, Michael Gove, is that those terms will be particularly attractive to countries like Brazil, with which we are in intense competition in the British market,’ he said.
Mr Calleary pointed out that €2.5billion worth of beef is exported from Ireland each year, just over half of which (52%) of which goes to our neighbours in Britain.
The UK trade alone was thus worth €1.25billion to the Irish economy.