It’s no surprise that Irish agri lobby has stayed

IT was three years ago when I last wrote about the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the EU. Back then we were told the €26bn deal would be a scenesetter for an even bigger one between the US and the EU. However, here we are years later with the ink still not dry on a CETA, and the EU keen to show all those free-traders out there that it’s just as easy to deal with as anyone else... which of course just isn’t true.

The deal, which has been seven years in the making, nearly came unstuck at the last minute because of a Belgian region called Wallonia sticking to its guns over concerns about whether these deals will expose governments to legal suits from big corporations that don’t get their way on state contracts.

While these concerns were legitimate, the realpolitik of the EU becoming increasingly anxious about being left behind in the race to carve up the planet’s consumers in a massive web of bilateral deals forced it through without so much as a squeak from the usual suspects lobbying on behalf of Irish agriculture.

While Meat Industry Ireland (MII) was convulsed in “extreme” disappointment three years ago, this time they urged the pesky Wallonians to give way so that the deal could be signed.

Meanwhile, the Irish Dairy Industry Association openly welcomed the prospect of a deal last week, while the normally hard-to-please IFA were reported to be “happy” with the agreement.

Only the ICSA expressed real reservations, centring on the “bullying” of Wallonia. “Given the uncertainty around Brexit, the last thing we need is more beef being imported,” said ICSA president Patrick Kent.

However, it appears that those at the heart of the negotiation from an Irish point of view are more concerned about staying ahead of the US and other big meat exporters in the negotiations that are ongoing with Japan through the TTP talks.

Japan is possibly the only place on the planet where food production is even more expensive than it is in the EU.

For this reason it is already an important market for Irish pigmeat and some lower-value beef cuts, and the belief among beef exporters is that Ireland would be at a severe disadvantage in this potentially lucrative market if Europe doesn’t get its deal done ahead of the others.

If CETA had continued to drag on, it was quite conceivable that big economies like Japan would have pushed EU trade efforts to one side on the basis that they were more hassle than they were worth.

So rather than wasting time on the finer points of CETA, the folks in MII, IFA and co are focusing their lobbying efforts on the dangers poised by the TTIP deal with the US and that old chestnut, Mercosur.

Dangerous

In reality, it is the latter that will always be the most dangerous for Irish farmers. Canada, even though it has secured access to the EU for 45,000t of beef and 75,000t of pork, is not able to produce this product at hugely discounted rates compared to EU producers.

The argument was that if the Canadians concentrated on filling that 45,000t of EU beef exports with high price cuts, it would account for nearly 10pc of the entire EU market, which can account for 40pc of carcase value.

But the big spike in North American beef prices over the last couple of years means that even this option isn’t terribly attractive to the Canadians, which may expain why they haven’t filled their existing EU beef export quota in recent years anyway.

The fears about cheap hormone beef are probably over-blown because the