Dáil debates

Thursday, 14 July 2022

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions

International Agreements

10:20 am

Photo of Martin HeydonMartin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, the European Union and New Zealand reached a political agreement in principle on a new free trade agreement on 30 June 2022.

I take this opportunity to inform the House that since the launch of these negotiations in June 2018, Ireland consistently pressed the European Commission to ensure the outcome of these negotiations would be balanced and would take into consideration our concerns in respect of our sensitive agriculture products such as beef, dairy and sheep meat. Ultimately, we must defend the best interests of our farm families. This is a key focus at all times for me, the senior Minister, Deputy McConalogue and for all in government.

In this regard, it is worth noting that the scale of the additional market access for the most sensitive products has been limited to less than 1% of EU consumption levels. The increase in New Zealand's access to the EU markets for these most sensitive products has been significantly limited by way of new tariff rate quotas, which means these markets have not been fully liberalised, thus protecting the interests of Irish and EU producers. This is due to the efforts of Ireland and other EU member states in highlighting sensitivities for our agricultural producers and in limiting the Commission's scope to meet New Zealand's much higher demands in these product categories. An example of this saw the agreed sheep meat quota limited to 38,000 tonnes, which is significantly less than the original 114,000 tonnes offer made by the Commission.

My Department is currently analysing the full draft texts, which were only published last week, in particular on the outcomes on sensitive agri-food products. This analysis is ongoing and is being conducted in conjunction with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which is the lead Department on trade policy. This analysis will inform any decision on whether to conduct a socioeconomic and environmental impact assessment of the final agreement.

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