Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney arrived in the US yesterday for the start of four-day mission to encourage investment into Ireland and promote trade in Irish food, including, for the first time in 17 years, beef products from Ireland after the expected lifting of a ban shortly.
Mr Coveney’s trip includes 16 meetings and stops at Princeton in New Jersey, Rochester in New York and Appleton in Wisconsin for engagements with multinational investors in Ireland and potential investors.
Reopen to Irish beef
He will also meet a major retailer as the American market is poised to reopen to Irish beef for the first time since the BSE-related ban was introduced in 1997.
A political dimension to the Minister's trip includes meetings in Washington with the US deputy secretary of state for agriculture Krysta Harden and key figures in the Senate involved in agriculture and trade issues.
There will also be meetings between the Minister and negotiators involved in the negotiations for the proposed EU-US trade agreement known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP.
Reciprocates visit
Mr Coveney's trade mission reciprocates the Irish visit of secretary of state for agriculture Tom Vilsack last week. Mr Vilsack signalled that the US could start accepting beef exports from Ireland again following US inspections of Irish meat processing plants next month – a trade that could be worth €25 million a year, according to State food promotion agency Bord Bia.
The Minister said that Irish beef could be on US retail shelves later this year subject to a positive US audit in the near future and that there was “a sense of momentum” to agree a trade partnership between the EU and the US.
“I feel strongly that a balanced agreement can benefit both sides,” he said in advance of his trip. “It can also help to build the kind of global consensus that will be essential if we are to meet the twin challenges of climate change and global food security in a world in which demand for food will increase by 50 per cent by 2050.”
Agriculture remains one of the biggest obstacle to the world’s two largest trading blocs agreeing a pact which advocates say could be worth $100 billion (€73 billion) a year to each.
The European Union has ruled out importing any meat from animals injected with hormones or opening up markets to genetically-modified crops, products that are commonplace across the US agricultural industry.
Mr Coveney also plans to visit Irish companies in the agri-food sector who are significant employers in the US.
