The Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, has said he is satisfied that Irish farming interests will be protected under the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada.

The CETA trade deal between Canada and the European Union was concluded in 2014 and it is expected to be ratified later this year, he said.

Under the trade deal, Minister Creed said Canadian beef will gain greater access to the European market, while greater access to the Canadian market will be granted for EU dairy products, notably cheese.

Responding to a question from Fianna Fail’s spokesperson on Agriculture Charlie McConalogue, Minister Creed said the concessions granted by Canada on market access for EU beef will benefit Irish producers.

“I will continue to press to ensure that the cumulative impact of beef concessions under CETA and other trade agreements is closely monitored so that that the approach continues to be in the best interests of EU and Irish agriculture,” he said.

What does CETA entail?

Under the trade agreement, the total duty-free access the EU will grant to Canada for fresh and frozen beef is 50,000t, which can be broken down in to 15,000t of frozen beef, 30,838t of fresh/chilled beef and 4,162t of fresh beef.

Canada will also be granted a duty-free access for 75,000t of pork, which will be added to the existing WTO quota of 4,625t and consolidated into CETA to simplify the administration of this quota.

Under the trade agreement, EU beef and sheepmeat market access into Canada will be fully liberalised at zero in-quota rates.

Along with meat shipments, Canada will also have duty free access into the EU dairy market, while the EU will have a high value cheese quota of 16,800t and an industrial cheese quota of 1,700t.

An additional 800 tonnes of high quality cheese will be added to an existing WTO quota of approximately 18,000 tonnes, but Ireland will not be included in this quota.

The trade agreement on tariffs on milk protein concentrate will also be fully liberalised and the tariff on infant formula will be reduced from 8.7% to zero.