Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The first question was whether barriers can be circumvented by other measures. Clearly, that is what the idea of regulatory co-operation is about, if there are other measures. I think we would all insist that Governments should have the freedom to introduce regulations in the interests of public safety or that they can introduce them but there would be some sharing of that information. Therefore, it would have to be done explicitly by a Government in the context of a regulatory initiative. I mean it cannot be done behind the door. The idea behind regulatory co-operation is that that would be in some way flagged in advance. We are not taking away the rights of Government to introduce regulations. Clearly, if some regulations were purely discriminatory against a product, or if one was not applying the regulation to one's own producers but was applying it to a foreign producer, then one would be in breach of the agreement. Once this is done across the board, and domestic producers have to do the same thing, then a Government is entitled to do likewise and I think most members would agree with that. We want to introduce our tobacco rules and so on.

In terms of a possible threat, there was analysis of the threat. I do not want to do an injustice to the document. Copenhagen Economics did have a look at it. I think, to a large degree, it was thrown up by the fact that, as it saw it, people moved to other sectors. I mean if it saw an opportunity arise in medical devices and certain areas then there would be some pressure through wage increases and one would see some loss of competitiveness in other service sectors. One might see a decline in that way. It was in a relatively benign sort of environment where it was assumed there was a fixed labour pool, which of course there is not when one has a 10% rate of unemployment and a very open economy like ours. The threat is the same but could present a new source of competitive pressure on sectors. Our trading sectors deal with competitive pressures every day of the week. We will offer the same sort of service, that I outlined to Deputy Tóibín earlier, in terms of supports to companies.

The definition of public service comes from the General Agreement on Trade in Services or GATS which states:

"services" includes any service in any sector except services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority;

"a service supplied in the exercise of governmental authority" means any service which is supplied neither on a commercial basis, nor in competition with one or more service suppliers.

The EU's mandate specifically states that services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority as defined by Article I.3 of GATS shall be excluded from these negotiations.

These provisions apply in commonality; they are not left to each member state to decide. As I said, the negotiators have indicated public services will not be on the agenda.

On the issue of carbon reduction measures, if the European Union introduces measures for other reasons, they will apply with equal force to any producer. It is down to the European Union to regulate this and such measures will not be undermined by the agreement with the United States. In other words, the European Union cannot be told to withdraw carbon measures it considers to be in the global public interest. Even if the United States does not have the same carbon reduction commitments as the European Union, a level playing pitch is achieved by how the European Union applies its special measures to products. That issue does not arise in the context of the agreement. If the European Union has super-protection in place for any particular reason, it will apply these rules uniformly across all sectors. It will not just be a question of quotas. There will also be the issue of the equivalence of food standards, as referred to by Deputy Martin Ferris, and the question of how we replicate traceability. US producers of non-hormone beef must be able to demonstrate they have met the same standards on which we insist for European producers. Both sides will have to agree to a framework within which this can be done.

I am not sure I fully understood Deputy Bernard J. Durkan's question about whether matters would be left to supply and demand. If the non-tariff barriers are brought down, it will be up to companies to take the opportunities which present from this, but there will be an effort to inform SMEs of what these opportunities are. Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland will be working to help people to take advantage of such a change.