Irish Pork and Beef access discussed at high level meetings
Creed meets mexican secretaries for agriculture and trade
MINISTER for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD today ( Thursday) met with the Mexican Secretary for Agriculture ( SAGARPA), Mr Jose Eduardo Calzada Rovirosa and with the Mexican Sub- Secretary for Trade, Mr. Juan Carlos Baker Pineda.
Commenting after the meetings Minister Creed said;
“As the first Irish Minister for Agriculture to visit Mexico as part of a Trade Mission, I was extremely encouraged with the positive engagement I had today with both Secretary Calzada, and Sub- Secretary Baker. Both Secretaries expressed a keen willingness to progress Trade with the EU and indeed Ireland specifically and I hope today’s meetings can be the catalyst to further progress the flow in Agri- food trade with Mexico.”
Referring to his meeting with his Mexican counterpart Secretary for Agriculture Jose Eduardo Calzada Rovirosa, Minister Creed remarked;
“Agri- food Trade to Mexico to date has been relatively modest with dairy exports totalling over € 52.5M in 2016, which represented over 91% of total agricultural exports to Mexico last year. We do not have market access for meat products to Mexico at present therefore I took the opportunity during today’s meeting to present Secretary Calzada with a technical questionnaire for pork access and a letter of intent for beef access. There have also been a number of technical meetings taking place between my officials and Mexican authorities parallel to the political engagement.”
Minister Creed continues his two day Trade Mission to Mexico which will include a meeting with Mexican meat industry representatives as well as officially launching the Irish Mexican Chamber of Commerce. Officials from the Department are also holding parallel technical discussions with SAGARPA.