The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, today (Wednesday, September 4) defended the stance of the EU, amid trade tensions with China over some dairy products.
In late August the Ministry of Commerce of China announced that it had begun an investigation into “subsidies” paid to European dairy farmers.
The investigation includes 20 EU schemes, including an Irish scheme which is referred to on a translated version of the ministry’s statement as the “Dairy Equipment Subsidy Scheme”.
It is believed that this refers to the Dairy Equipment Scheme under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS).
Speaking to Agriland today during a trade mission to China which finished today, Minister McConalogue said that he had defended those schemes, and the EU’s stance on them, during meetings with Chinese officials and ministers in Beijing.
He added: “One of the reasons the trip is so timely as well is that fact that it gives me an opportunity to reiterate very strongly and to put very clearly the view of the Irish government, the very confident view we have, that the schemes we have in place are fully compliant with World Trade Organisation (WTO) trading rules.
“We’ll obviously assist the European Commission in terms of being able to respond to the questions the Chinese government have asked.
“I’m totally confident, given the strong response we have and the strong position we have, that we can reach a successful conclusion.”
Minister McConalogue
The minister also spoke to Agriland about the changes in the Chinese market that are likely to influence the kind of dairy products purchased by consumers, with infant formula set to take a backseat in the future in favour of powders used in nutrition and health.
“We’ve seen significant change in relation to the make-up of the products that have seen coming here, and the make up of the potential opportunities ahead.
“Infant formula was the big seller, and the big item that we’ve been bringing here over the last number of years, but we’ve seen a halving of the birthrate here in China in the last six to seven years, and also an increase in domestic production in infant formula,” the minister outlined.
He also added: “So the opportunities going forward now are much more…in sports nutrition, health, and also in relation to elderly care, and particular products, health products, in that segment; and also food for special medical purposes.”
Minister McConalogue is upbeat about the potential for growth in the Chinese market for Irish dairy products.
“Given the advanced capacity of our dairy sector to be able to put together functional ingredients that can work well in products here, there’s real opportunities there to carve out a strong place in the market over the time ahead,” he added.