Ms Sinéad McPhillips:

Any imports into the EU market could potentially impact on the average EU price. That is our main concern, rather than what comes into Ireland. The EU has an ambitious trade agenda. It is in the process of negotiating other trade agreements, many of which have potential significant benefits for the Irish agrifood sector and which we support. We have spoken of the Canadian free trade agreement, which is in place and which has given rise to significant increased agrifood exports to Canada. We have doubled the value of agrifood exports to Japan, which is a very good and high-potential market. The protected geographical indication for Irish grass-fed beef has potential in that market. We have a free trade agreement with Korea and beef access to Korea, so there is potential growth there.

In terms of negotiations, we heard yesterday in Brussels that there is provisional agreement on trade with Indonesia. That is a significant potential market for dairy exports. Negotiations are ongoing with Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. In some of those markets, there are pluses and minuses that we need to be careful of as negotiations continue.

Overall, as an exporting country, there is a lot of potential there. EU-India negotiations have been going on for many years but seem to be gaining some momentum now. For the spirits drinks sector, India is a significant target market for exports.