Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

The Everything But Arms Initiative was something of a fallacy in terms of a justification for the Government's position on the loss of an industry which goes back to the foundation of the State. The Minister, in his justification, weakens his own argument because the Everything But Arms Initiative and the ACP countries have not found the foothold in the European markets that they were supposed to get as a result of the restructuring of the sugar industry. The bottom line here is that what was a sustainable industry has been sold down the river but it was let go too easily.

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