Stephen Cadogan: New rounds of talks could damage EU/Irish beef trade

It is not difficult to come up with a conspiracy theory that the EU wants to weaken beef production.

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has recommended reducing the Irish beef herd by 35%, and the dairy herd by 5.5%, to comply with EU 2030 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets.

An analysis by Copenhagen Economics suggests the Irish beef sector could lose up to €45 million, if free trade negotiations with the US result in agreement (while the dairying sector may gain an estimated €90 million).