Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Higgins and welcome her contribution. We should have had a debate on these agreements in recent years.

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, is a new-generation agreement that will remove over 99% of tariffs between the EU and Canada. CETA will significantly improve business opportunities for Irish companies in Canada. With CETA, Irish companies will receive the best treatment that Canada has ever offered to any trading partner, thereby levelling the playing field on the Canadian market for Irish and other EU companies. By opening markets, CETA should support growth and jobs and bring further benefits for consumers. It has the potential to keep prices down and to provide consumers with greater choice.

The main benefits of this agreement for Ireland include the opening up of public procurement markets in the Canadian provinces. This will give Irish firms increased access to Canadian public sector purchasing. Ireland will also gain unlimited tariff-free access for most of its important food exports. Of course, we are all conscious of the importance of food exports from Ireland, particularly to Canada. In addition, Ireland successfully campaigned for a low beef import quota from Canada to the EU, thereby safeguarding our important EU market in this area. Irish firms will also benefit from the recognition of product standards and certification, thereby saving on double-testing on both sides of the Atlantic. This is of particular benefit to smaller companies for which it can be prohibitive to pay twice for the same test. These are some of the benefits of the trade deal with Canada, which will provide new market opportunities for Irish firms in many sectors.

In May of this year, the Council had an exchange of views on CETA and on the process towards signature and provisional application of CETA. The European Commission and the member states highlighted the high quality of the agreement that had been reached with Canada and expressed a desire to work towards the signature of the agreement at the EU-Canada summit in October. The Commission published its proposals for signature, conclusion and provisional application on 5 July last and they are available on the Commission's register of documents. On 13 May last, at the most recent meeting of the EU Council of trade ministers, the Minister, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, made clear that our approach - based on our current assessment of the provisions of CETA - is that we view CETA as a mixed agreement in terms of EU and member state competency. In view of the position taken by Ireland and other member states, the Commission has now decided to submit CETA to the Council for decision as a mixed agreement. This means each member state will be required to ratify the agreement under its own procedures. The Oireachtas will be part of the final decision on ratification.It will now be a matter for the Council and the European Parliament to decide on the signature, conclusion and the provisional application of the CETA.

Provisional application is provided for in the EU free trade agreements. This means that those areas where the EU has full competence may be applied immediately once the agreement comes into force. It is an important mechanism that allow companies and consumers to benefit from a trade agreement at an early stage. Provisional application of the CETA would be without prejudice to national ratification by member states. The provisional application of free trade agreements is standard practice. What is at issue is what should be within the scope of such application. Discussion on this matter continues in the Council. We have argued that only those areas directly within exclusive Commission competence should be covered by the provisional application. As already noted, the Commission has already accepted that the CETA is a mixed agreement.

It is in Ireland's interest to see strong progress towards the implementation of the CETA as it will provide opportunities for Irish firms to diversify their export markets further. Total export and import trade between Ireland and Canada is worth €2.5 billion, which is based on 2014 trade results. That is a great deal of trade between the two countries and there are great opportunities to grow it further when the CETA is implemented.