‘Tariffs are an attempt to divide EU members’
THE announcement of beef and other farm product tariffs by Britain this week was ‘an attempt to target Ireland’, as well as to break the unity of the EU 27, Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan declared yesterday.
‘We regarded them as a political stunt,’ he said of the tariff announcement, which would threaten €800million in Irish agrifood exports to the UK, with farming groups warning they would be ‘catastrophic’ if implemented.
The tariff regime, which would only come into effect in the wake of a no-deal crash-out by Britain, was denounced by Mr Hogan as an attempt to drive a wedge between remaining member states while putting pressure on this country.
‘It was an attempt to target Ireland, as well as an attempt to break the unity of the EU 27,’ he said. ‘Various efforts have been made, in terms of breaking away one or two member states from the rest. It has failed and will continue to fail.’
The European Commission would deploy ‘tools to nullify the impact of tariffs’, he pledged. ‘The Commission is going to stand strongly behind our EU farmers, including in relation to beef and cheddar,’ Mr Hogan told RTÉ Radio
‘I am guaranteeing today that there will be no decline in direct farm payments, even though our funds will be down substantially [once the UK leaves].’ He warned against any outright panic by exporters, saying British businesses were not going to find high-quality replacement products overnight for produce like Irish beef.
He stressed, however, that the negotiations were now over, and ‘the ball is now very firmly in the court of London’.
The House of Commons wants an extension, he said, and this can be discussed next week in Brussels, ‘but Mrs May will need to have a good reason, rather than extending for the sake of it’, he declared.