Every effort must be made to avoid US tariffs - Healy

Every effort must be made to try to avoid the US applying the proposed tariffs on Irish dairy and pork products, according to IFA president Joe Healy.

Although he admitted that the tariffs are concerning, they are not unexpected and there is opportunity for the industry to take measures to soften the impact.

“We understand dairy exporters have made every effort to store additional product in the US ahead of tariffs, which will mitigate some of the impact.

"However, every effort must be made by the EU and the Irish Government between now and the WTO meeting later this month to try [to] resolve this matter through negotiation,” he said.

Exports

Speaking of the tariffs, IFA dairy chair Tom Phelan said: “We have grown our exports of Kerrygold branded butter and cheese to the US to over 34,000t in the last decade. Kerrygold butter is now the second-highest-selling butter brand in the USA, and some other Irish exporters have entered the market in recent times.

"These are high-value consumer products and command a significant price premium on the market place, delivering strong margins to our sector.”

ICMSA reaction

ICMSA president Pat McCormack said that the imposition of tariffs at any time would be a matter of regret requiring a degree of commitment towards an equitable resolution.

He said that the idea that a range of Irish food products being exported to the US could be hit with a new 25% tariff in the present circumstances, where the prospects for our existing major export market were “frankly terrifying”, was almost beyond belief.

Farmers would read of the threats now being levelled against our products with concern and anxiety

McCormack said that Irish farmers and agri-food were now being set up to take a hit as part of a tit-for-tat trade dispute in which they were categorically not involved in and from which they had derived no benefit whatsoever.

He said that farmers would read of the threats now being levelled against our products with concern and anxiety and when they learned that the threatened US tariffs were on foot of a dispute between the EU and US over supports for Airbus and Boeing, that regret would turn to disbelief.

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