Dairy delight as Japan trade deal sends message EU is moving on post-Brexit
THE EU’s top court will this week decide whether construction can begin on a contested Co Tipperary wind farm.
Local resident Edel Grace and activist Peter Sweetman say the farm, on the lower slopes of Keeper Hill, around 6km north of Rear Cross, encroaches on an EU protected habitat for the hen harrier.
But developers Coillte and the ESB say they have done enough to ensure that the 16-turbine Bunkimalta farm, which they say can power 30,000 homes, will not breach EU rules.
The land is part of an EU ‘special protection area’ for hen harriers.
Ms Grace and Mr Sweetman say An Bórd Pleanála should never have granted planning permission to the developers back in 2014. DAIRY and meat producers are being prepped for the new EU-Japan trade deal, which could enter into force as early as next year.
While it still has to pass through the European and Japanese parliaments, EU leaders made a big show of signing the text in Tokyo last week, sending a pointed message to US president Donald Trump and Brexiteers that the EU is moving on.
Trade should be based on “trust, clear rules and reliable partners”, Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said at the signing ceremony, insisting there was “no protection in protectionism”.
“We want to rewrite the rulebook together, not to destroy it alone,” he said.
Mr Juncker will travel to the US this week to meet Mr Trump, on the latter’s invitation.
The signing of the Japan accord is “an act of enormous strategic importance for the rules-based international order, at a time when some are questioning this order”, said European Council president Donald Tusk.
The trade deal (which is flanked by a “strategic partnership” in areas like security (pictured) and climate, and a data transfer deal) is the largest ever negotiated by the bloc, and will lead to a combined market of 600 million people, making up nearly a third of the world’s GDP.
It will remove almost a billion euros in duties for EU companies, with exports to Japan estimated to rise by up to 24pc.
It will scrap the bulk of Japan’s high tariffs on EU dairy cheese via increased quotas.
Tariffs on beef and other bovine meat will eventually fall to 9pc (from almost 28pc now), while many pork products will become tariff free.
It will also offer protections for specialty produce from the EU and Japan, including Kobe beef.
But Japan can pull the brakes on EU meat exports if they go above a ‘trigger level’ of at least 43,500 tonnes in a given year.
Ireland already exports more to Japan than it imports (€1.9bn more, according to Eurostat), making it our fourth-largest trading partner. Over 500 Irish companies export to Japan, with pharmaceuticals, dairy and chemicals topping the list of products.
Irish dairy production has increased since the EU eliminated its internal production restrictions in 2015. But Brexit is likely to eat into the export market, with around a quarter of all Irish exports currently going to the UK.
A report by the London School of Economics published last week showed that Ireland will face “Brexit-induced decreases in demand” for dairy products almost on a par with the UK.