Heydon has 'frank' discussion with Secretary of Ag on US soil
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon has had a "frank" discussion with the Secretary of Agriculture on the first day of his trade mission to the US during which he highlighted the "mutually beneficial nature" of US/Irish trade.
Minster Heydon will spend two days in Washington during his US trade mission this week meeting senior political representatives including members of congress and the senate.
The minister will also travel to Kentucky and Chicago to meet with Irish and American companies.
Speaking in Washington today (Tuesday, April 8) Minister Heydon said while it was a frank discussion with US Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, it was also a "warm" meeting because of her family ancestry from Galway.
"We talked about the things that unite us - the mutually beneficial nature of trade as well as the challenges we face here now and the impact that recent announcements from the administration here could have obviously from the Irish perspective.
"We are part of the EU and our response is a combined one from the EU - but we understand the American perspective and we have that close relationship here," Minister Heydon said.
He said that he also welcomed the opportunity "to engage, to encourage the administration here to engage with our European negotiation team because only by working through these details the perspectives on both sides can be understood".
According to Minister Heydon, this can enable both sides to get a "solution that is better for our people and our companies and the American people and American companies as well".
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is keen to highlight during his trade mission that Irish companies also have operations in the US.
"There are 770 Irish companies employing 200,000 American people and particularly in our agri- food sector.
" We have companies like Ornua, Kerry, Tirlán, Alltech employing thousands of American people here and I will visit many of them later in the week and highlight that mutual beneficial nature of that ongoing trade," Minister Heydon added.
He has invited Rollins to visit Ireland and she has indicated that she hopes to take up this invitation in the autumn.
