EU nations step in to help

Approval of special national aid programmes for agriculture has become a weekly event for the European Commission. The Irish livestock sector has already enjoyed a big funding boost from the Dublin government to help offset losses from poor prices when the food service sector all but disappeared.

This week saw approval for a scheme in Belgium to help potato producers and nursery plant producers in the Flanders region.

Greece also secured approval for a 51 million euro programme of aid for farmers, with a focus on the livestock sector.

A scheme was also approved for Lithuania and many more are in the pipeline.

These schemes must be approved under state aid rules, but the process has been accelerated because of the scale of the crisis.

Meanwhile, in a report on crop conditions, the Commission says spring crop prospects are favourable, because of limited heat and welldistributed rainfall patterns.

However, the picture is less favourable for winter crops, particularly in central Europe, because of severe rainfall patterns early in the season.

France has conceded that subsidies to Airbus, which led to sanctions against EU food by the United States, were illegal under World Trade Organisation rules and damaging to Boeing.

This should pave the way for the US to lift its punitive sanctions, although with the global airline market in freefall there is little for either side to celebrate in resolving the original issue.

Now the Trump administration has changed tack, this time to target the EU’s new Farm to Fork strategy with its focus on sustainable food production.

US agriculture secretary Sonny Purdue has claimed this is a threat to global trade in agriculture.

This is on grounds that the EU will seek to force other countries to meet its standards as the price of doing business with Europe.

At issue is the fact that the US fundamentally disagrees with the EU’s precautionary principles being applied to pesticides, some veterinary drugs and hygiene practices that are the norm in the US.

With the end of July, the target of having an outline post-Brexit trade deal in place by then has joined the long list of missed deadlines. This was no surprise, given that on the EU side in particular the focus has moved to a deal in September or October.

That adds further uncertainty for farmers and every other business – but the positive is both sides are still talking and committed to a deal.

Given the challenges rocketing job losses will bring in the autumn, it is hard to believe either side would now put politics ahead of the outcome both need to maintain economic activity.

Picture: Neil G Paterson. Some EU countries are aiding their own livestock sectors.