Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I need to be careful here that I do not start prescribing solutions. We have people who are a lot smarter than I am, who are technical experts on trade and concepts such as dynamic alignment versus equivalence and who are looking at this issue and trying to find a way in which EU trade rules will not be undermined. At the same time, the British Government, I hope, will look with an open mind at how it can move away from simply asking for recognition of equivalence and move towards a much more reassuring position that British standards would be effectively paralleled to EU veterinary, SPS and animal and plant health standards and so on.

There is a school of thought that asks if the wagon is hitched to the EU in terms of standards, does it undermine the capacity to do trade deals with other parts of the world? This might include doing a trade deal with the US on the use of genetically modified products or hormones in beef and dairy products and so on. There is much politics at play. I hope the upside of a veterinary agreement or an SPS agreement between the two sides would be clear. Trading in beef and dairy products between Ireland and the UK or between the UK and France seems to make much more sense than trading between the UK and Canada, Brazil or the US, given the distances and sustainability questions. Let us wait and see where it goes. Currently there is no breakthrough in the area but if the objective of a politician or businessperson in Northern Ireland is to reduce the impact of the protocol with goods coming from Great Britain into Northern Ireland, and they want to halve the number of checks in ports, there is a way to do it if the British Government agrees to find a way with the EU to giving assurance on common standards in the area.

On the question of dairy processing, this is a reference to country of origin matters that are problematic. I probably should not name companies but everybody who understands the agricultural sector knows who they are. Some of our dairy processors source up to 40% of their milk pool from Northern Ireland. It is a big and very important supply chain for dairy farmers in Northern Ireland with regard to price guarantees and all the rest of it. All of that Northern Ireland milk can still be sold right across the EU. There is no issue at all with that. It is considered within the Union as part of the Single Market for goods. Where there is a legal problem for product that originates in Northern Ireland is with country of origin labelling. There are 60 or so EU trade agreements with other parts of the world and they apply to EU products.

Milk produced in Northern Ireland, even if it is processed south of the Border, is technically a UK-origin product. Therefore, the benefits of certain trade deals linked to certain dairy products do not apply. The processors involved may well need to ensure the milk being sourced from Northern Ireland is used for markets across the EU and so on. There are some limitations in terms of a trade deal with Japan, Vietnam, CETA or wherever for milk produced in Northern Ireland. My understanding is that so far the processing sector is getting on and adapting to the position. The ideal scenario would be if we could get agreement within the EU, which does not require British Government approval per se, that product from Northern Ireland under the rules of the EU Single Market for goods could be considered within those trade agreements as EU product or equivalent to EU product.

That technically requires a minor amendment to a trade agreement. There is no such thing as one side looking for an amendment without the other side looking for a corresponding change as the price. There is no appetite in the EU to start that process, given all the other matters people are trying to deal with in the context of Northern Ireland. I hope that in time we will be able to gradually change some of those trade agreements to accommodate goods produced in Northern Ireland. I have certainly been advocating for that to ensure goods produced in Northern Ireland are at no disadvantage to goods produced in any other part of the Single Market or even the island of Ireland in the context of EU trade agreements.

We can see with current dairy prices that the market remains reasonably buoyant. I hope we can improve the position over time but for now the companies involved seem to be managing. I do not think they are separating their milk pools but I presume they are using the milk pool from Northern Ireland for certain products that are primarily concerned with EU markets. That is a guess because it is a while since I spoke with some of the processing companies. That is my understanding of what is being done.