Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Generally speaking, I would be in favour of trade agreements and economic partnership agreements. I am sure the Minister of State is somewhat surprised to find so much negativity coming from this side of the table. These agreements are with some of the poorest countries in the world and traditionally the relationship between rich sophisticated Europe and poor Africa has been an uneven relationship. As other speakers have said, we have received a certain amount of correspondence from civil society groups expressing concerns about the agreement's contents.

For instance, one concern is about the non-tariff barriers to trade which are being eliminated straight off, as far as I understand. I presume that refers to all products. It may be protected products; it is not clear. They are being retained while the tariff barriers, the import duties, are being gradually and partially reduced. However, the countries have traditionally depended on the non-tariff barriers to protect their indigenous industries and particularly their agrifood sector.

The other major point they have been making is that trade with Europe is not necessarily the best thing for Africa. The population of Europe is falling and the population of Africa is growing. The demand in the future will be in Africa and they feel that promoting trade between us and Africa is thwarting the development of inter-regional development in Africa.

The objectives of this agreement include improving governance, sustainable development, increasing capacity, regional integration and eradication of poverty. One could not be against those. I am reluctant to argue in any way with what the Minister of State refers to as global trade experts. However, we want some reassurance the progressivity on liberalisation will be dependent on the progress in implementing the commitments that we, Europe, have made. Irish Aid has always had the tradition of trying to work for the benefit of the countries with which we trade, but that might not necessarily be the agenda of the entire EU. We need some assurances that we are aware of these pitfalls.