Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Bord Bia has just concluded a market prioritisation in terms of where we will drive our focus for various product areas, whether it is seafood, the drinks industry, prepared consumer foods, beef, pork meat, sheepmeat, the dairy sector or whatever. That will inform the Department and will primarily inform the industry as to where best it should focus because that is quite a detailed piece of research. It is important to bear in mind that we live in a world where there are significant actors on the global stage who are using a vocabulary that is hostile to trade. On the global trade, there are talks about a trade war between China and the United States over steel and aluminium. That could quickly spill over into having a damaging impact on us because the EU has responded in the context of steel and has put products like Bourbon and Harley-Davidson on a reciprocal trade blacklist for US imports. That could very quickly spiral out of control in terms of our exports to the US.

We are probably one of the most globalised economises in our agrifood space and the last thing we need is people putting up barriers to trade. We need to negotiate as best we possibly can to maximise the opportunities but in any negotiations it cannot all be upside for us and downside for everybody else.

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