Ms Alison Graham:

On the question of products of mixed milk origin, we are concerned that, even though we are thankful for the Irish protocols in the withdrawal agreement which allow for the continued trade of milk and dairy processed products on an all-Ireland basis, unfortunately, wider EU policy does not extend this benefit to products produced on an all-Ireland basis because Northern Ireland milk falls outside the EU customs union. This means that products produced on an all-Ireland basis, namely, products which contain both Republic of Ireland and Northern Irish milk, will, by and large, not be able to access the benefits of EU free trade agreements.

The rules in the EU free trade agreements effectively state that products which can access the benefits must be wholly of EU origin. There are some exceptions and limited flexibilities. For instance, in the Japanese agreement, there is a flexibility of approximately 10%. These flexibilities, however, tend to be limited and do not give us sufficient space for us to be able to continue to export these products which are produced on an all-Ireland basis.

In addition to that, not only are these products excluded from EU free trade agreements, they are also excluded from EU market support tools contained in the Common Agricultural Policy. Those are tools on which we would rely in times of market crises, such as public intervention and private storage aid.

The EU has enabled this trade to continue on an all-Ireland basis. It should equally support products which are produced on an all-Ireland basis within its wider policies in order that future EU trade agreements which are negotiated contain rules of origin which allow for products produced on an all-Ireland basis to be exported under preference and get that preferential access to those markets. Existing EU free trade agreements should be looked at again to see how we can maintain the current trade in those products produced on an all-Ireland basis and can maintain that access at the preferential rates to those markets. This should be a priority from an agricultural perspective for us going forward. From our perspective over in Brussels, we see that.

We are talking to different European associations. ICOS has been chairing a Brexit task force within the European Farmers and European Agri-cooperatives, COPA-COGECA, for the past three years. Through these organisations and task force we have had close dialogue with the EU institutions and other European stakeholder and industry organisations to put together our concerns, to discuss our preparations and see how we can find solutions. Through this dialogue, we have built up a strong support about the unique difficulties facing Ireland. Many of the proposals which we have presented in our opening statement are ones that we have built together with our European counterparts.

It is true that these market support measures are vitally important, particularly in a no-deal scenario, which, unfortunately, is looking more like a possibility as we count down the days. Market support measures, that is, intervention and private storage aid will be vital. However, our key ask should be that products of mixed milk origin will maintain access to EU support measures if we are to ask for any flexibility in their use in the coming months.