Fears future of small-scale dairy sector is on the line
Milk from Oceania (New Zealand and Australia) will put our entire small-scale dairy farm sector on the line, according to Germany’s AbL small farmers’ association.
Their alarm raises memories of perpetual war between Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia in Nineteen Eighty-Four, the novel published in 1949, George Orwell’s masterpiece that added words to the language such as Big Brother, the Thought Police, and doublethink.
Few proposals frighten farmers more than the EU’s ambitious plans for free trade agreement, and European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström has just announced a mandate to open negotiations with Australia and New Zealand.
Even with a fair wind, these negotiations would take several years, but the AbL small farmers in Germany are already warning this new trade agreement would do away with the EU’s protection of its sensitive dairy market from imports.
They have gone on the offensive, saying New Zealand’s cheap milk production methods damage the environment, and the EU would be importing this environmental burden.
At least there is some consolation for Europe’s beef farmers, who fear a trade agreement with South American countries would put them out of business.
Now their dairy colleagues are in the same boat. However, the trade negotiations with the Mercosur group of South American countries have been going on since 1999, so the panic may be overdone.
At the same time, it is understandable that farmers fear the potential for huge swings in world trade, over which they have absolutely no control, as small operators at the end of the production chain.
So why does the EU in its Berlaymont castle in Brussels come up with free trade proposal after proposal to scare the living daylights out of their 12.2 million farmers across Europe, each working an average patch of 14.2 hectares?
“We want to shape globalisation, not to be shaped by it,” says Commissioner Malmström, who is frightening farmers nearly as much as one of her predecessors, Peter Mandelson, now Baron Mandelson for his troubles.
Commissioner Malmström assures us we will all enjoy free trade.
If we are to continue to enjoy free and open global trade, everyone in society must enjoy the benefits of it. Otherwise, we will continue to see backlashes, and trade made a scapegoat.
It’s the backlashes farmers worry about, too.
The Swedish Commissioner says everyone wants to do business with our market of 500 million consumers, and the EU has significant political weight to throw around in an ambitious trade negotiating agenda.
To her credit, she finalised negotiations with Japan, helped in no small way by Agriculture Commissioner Hogan.
It is the biggest bilateral trade agreement ever negotiated, involving 630m people, and quarter of the world’s GDP. Hopefully, it has not gone to Ms Malström’s head, and it must be said it offers good export potential for agricultural member states like Ireland.
Provisional application of a deal with Canada is also now in force, with likely benefits for our agriculture. A new agreement with Mexico can also help farmers, particularly pig farmers, when it comes into force.
If the Mercosur talks succeed, EU business will be the first to get liberal access to a large and highly protected market in South America, says the Commissioner .
“We are making good progress in these negotiations, but we still need time.”
Farmers hope it will take forever, this deal is nicknamed Beef for Cars, and farmers fear an avalanche of Brazil’s cheap beef.
Addressing a forum of chief executives and chairs of major European multinationals, Ms Malmström called on them to ensure the positive impact of global trade is not just felt, but understood by everyone.
Not exactly the reassurance farmers wanted, to be depending on multinationals to save them from a flood of imported foods.
