Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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238. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the degree to which he can secure assurances to protect the agrifood sector in the event of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21574/16]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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255. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which he remains satisfied that ongoing trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States of America do not militate against the agrifood sector here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21638/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 238 and 255 together.

I will continue to do everything possible to secure a positive outcome for the agri-food sector from the ongoing negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

A TTIP deal is of significant importance for Ireland. The US is one of our leading trading partners, and we have a large and growing agri-food trade surplus with them (exports of €869m last year, compared to imports of €271m). The drinks industry currently accounts for over 60% of the value of exports.

Ireland has significant offensive interests in the TTIP negotiations. For example, we see worthwhile opportunities in the US for cheese, powdered milks and sports products, and further opportunities for branded packaged butter, if we can remove some regulatory barriers. Prepared consumer foods and fish could also benefit from trade liberalisation.

Beef is a unique sector in that we have both offensive and defensive interests. In the long term, any significant increase in beef imports to the EU could have adverse effects on the Irish industry. That was confirmed by a number of recent studies and is an issue we have raised strongly with the European Commission. We therefore have legitimate concerns about the size, composition and administration of any beef quota offered to the US.

We should also seek a significant EU quota for beef to the US as part of any TTIP agreement. Following the re-opening of the market, Irish beef exports now fall under a 65,000-tonne quota for ‘other countries’ on a first come, first served basis. This is mainly filled by Latin American countries. Now that we have access for manufacturing beef we would stand to benefit greatly from a specific EU import quota in the US, and this can only be achieved through TTIP.

A number of key issues in these negotiations arise in relation to hormone treated beef, food standards, GMOs and Geographical indicators. All of these arose in the Canadian negotiations and were resolved, and should also be capable of being resolved in TTIP.

It is important to ensure that the principle of equivalence will continue to apply, so that even where food production processes in the EU and US are not identical, they will provide equivalent guarantees regarding the standards of production. This principle is already enshrined under the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Agriculture, and is also recognised by both sides as the basis for a TTIP agreement.

Equally, it is important that both the EU and United States retain the policy space to restrict certain practices and processes on social and ethical grounds and this is also recognised, in principle, by both sides. For example, the EU Commission has made it clear that it will not allow the importation of hormone treated meat into the EU and this is well understood by the US side.

Thirteen rounds of negotiations have taken place to date, with the latest taking place in New York at the end of April. Overall it has been described as a good round, with detailed discussions on all topics, aimed at developing consolidated texts. The ambition is to see the negotiations finalised this year, but this may not be possible given the pace of negotiations to date, the amount of issues still unresolved, and external factors such as the US Presidential election campaign and the ratification by Congress of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. The European Commission is also continuing to press for more effective engagement from the US on non-tariff barriers - including sanitary and phytosanitary measures-in the interests of securing a balanced overall deal.

The fourteenth round takes place this week in Brussels, and I hope that further progress can be made in the interests of achieving a timely conclusion.