Tipperary farming: Brexit talks are 'most important ones' since Ireland joined the EEC

It is no exaggeration to say the Brexit talks are the most important negotiations for the future of Irish agriculture and our agri-food sector, since Ireland joined the EEC in 1973, according to IFA president Joe Healy.

There can be no back-sliding on the backstop and no time limit, he told the IFA's national council.

The council was also addressed by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney on the latest developments on Brexit.

IFA is very clear that Irish farmers’ interests lie in maintaining full access and frictionless trade both North / South and East / West between Ireland and Britain, while retaining the full value of the UK market, said Mr Healy.

The ideal way to achieve this, would be for the UK to remain within the Single Market and the Customs Union, but their Government was taking a different approach, he said.

Mr Healy said the UK’s stated intention of leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union and pursuing an independent trade policy including agri-food, made it impossible to retain the kind of frictionless trade Ireland had at present.

“This would open the door to Britain directly competing with the EU in future trade deals, undercutting EU import tariffs and granting additional import quotas, for example to the US, Mercosur, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc,” said the IFA president.

He said that would be totally unacceptable.

In the same way, the UK’s proposal for a so-called “common rulebook” only covers border checks and falls far short of full regulatory alignment with EU standards.

IFA’s concern was that the UK was aiming to avoid compliance with EU regulations and standards on marketing, labelling, GMOs, pesticides, geographic indications, food fraud and other CAP requirements in ways that would give their producers clear competitive advantages over EU producers, he said

“That is also unacceptable,” said Mr Healy.

IFA has set out the need to prepare for all possible scenarios in the Brexit negotiations.

“We will require Government and EU support measures, depending on developments. This includes direct income aid to farmers in the event of further Sterling devaluation - any fall in Sterling beyond 90p would be disastrous for producers. Depending on the outcome of the negotiations, a special purpose fund will be required to offset the negative impacts from Brexit,” said Mr Healy.

He said that the financial commitment must be scalable and sufficient to deal with any eventuality, from a soft Brexit up to a no deal scenario.

This would provide scope for direct producer sectoral and targeted supports, basic payment top-ups and emergency market supports, as may be necessary.

Farmers may also require structural and adjustment support measures to cope with the additional costs and long-term devaluation of returns from the UK market, said Mr Healy.