Trade deal discussions have been dominated by the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks with the US for much of the past three years, while discussions with Mercosur countries returned to the agenda in the spring of this year.

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada has, comparatively speaking, slipped under the radar, at least until this last week when the French-speaking region of Belgium couldn’t be persuaded to endorse it.

This deal was agreed between the EU and Canada late last year and it was thought it would be the first trade example of the effects of the Lisbon Treaty at work. It was believed that the EU Commission had the authority to agree and implement the deal without the approval of member states.

Somewhat surprisingly, and in light of the protests growing against TTIP, the EU decided that member states would be consulted. Again this was somewhat vague but as the deal was less controversial than TTIP or indeed the resumed Mercosur discussions, it gained general acceptance until the Belgian region of Wallonia this week said no.

The Canadians are furious, and the EU, after the Brexit debacle, didn’t need another failure on its CV so soon. For Agriculture, CETA is nowhere near as controversial as Mercosur, which would be a complete write-off for the EU beef industry in particular.

A report about TTIP by Copenhagen Economics, commissioned by the Irish Government, suggested that beef would take a hit, but the other agricultural sectors would be at worst neutral and overall economically it would benefit Ireland. Indeed, at a time when US farmgate cattle prices were over a euro per kilo ahead of Irish, there could have been a case made that beef would work out OK as well. However, with supplies recovered in the US, their prices have fallen dramatically this year and the US is no longer as attractive a destination as it was even this time last year.

The CETA deal was considered reasonably benign from an EU agriculture perspective, despite protests by many Irish MEPs. It did grant 50,000t carcase weight equivalent (CWE) of Canadian fresh and frozen beef access for Canada to the EU, and 75,000t CWE of pork. In return, the EU beef and sheep meat market access into Canada will be fully liberalised at zero in-quota rates.

For dairy, Canada was to get duty-free access into the EU dairy market. In return, there was to be a high-value cheese quota of 16,800t, with provision to allow newcomers, including Ireland and other member states, 30% access to the new quota.

Meat Industry Ireland endorsed this proposal earlier this week, while the IFA and other farmer representative bodies had at best reservations. A spokesman for the IFA put it succinctly when he said that in the EU, with growing production and declining consumption over recent years, how could we handle any extra beef, never mind an extra 50,000t?

This is a valid point, yet as a nation that is dependent on exporting so much of our production and with the disruption to our natural market in the UK inevitable with Brexit, we have to be bold in charting the future for our industry.

Gamble

Nobody would endorse Mercosur and TTIP presents many risks. CETA was considered a relatively safe deal from an EU agricultural perspective, with perhaps more trade opportunities than threats. It would have been a gamble but in the position that Ireland will find itself in the coming years, risks will have to be taken.

One area the EU can look to further protect its farmers is in granting equivalence of standards. For example, as the Brazilian seminar last week in Brussels also highlighted, cattle traceability is recognised where cattle are documented for the 90 days prior to slaughter. In Ireland, if a farmer fails to record the birth of a calf within the first 27 days of its life, it is a cross compliance failure for which the farmer would lose part of his EU direct payment.