Dempsey at Large: The United States - a complex ally

We can forget that in those pre-EEC days, the US forces in Europe were the main outlet for Irish carcase beef.

Britain was much more interested in store cattle for further feeding. But beef is still important.

Last week the cattlemen in the United States called again for a fundamental reappraisal of the place of imports of beef from Brazil on the US market.

As has been covered in the Irish Farmers Journal, US beef cattle numbers have been in long-term decline and beef prices there are much the same as here, but are much lower in Brazil.

The US cattle farmers called on their government to recognise the different health and production costs in Brazilian beef such as labour and environmental conditions and to take action to curtail imports. Sounds familiar to Irish ears!

Presumably, the issue will come up on President Trump’s radar as he reviews the list of tariffs he is implementing. But this is just the latest example of a long list of US proposals to form its own economic and political space, separate from the rest of the world.

The economic collapse following the Wall Street crash of 1929 was made much worse by the establishment of widespread tariffs and budgetary tightening in the early 1930s.

It was President Roosevelt’s new deal that pulled the country out of recession.

But even then, the US looked inward with the US like Ireland staying neutral in World War II until the attack on Pearl Harbour.

When the forerunner of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was formed after the war, the US insisted that agriculture not be included as the US ploughed its own agricultural furrow as did Europe with its CAP to build European food security.

Again in response to US pressure, agriculture was included in multinational trade negotiations when the Uruguay round was finally agreed at the end of 1993.

But now we see the WTO essentially dead, with the US blocking critical arbitration appointments and unilaterally imposing a broad range of tariffs in flagrant conflict with the WTO rules.

Rules which in fairness need updating in for example still treating China as a developing country, with all the concessions that imply and India, the world’s most populous country has an open-ended policy of pursuing full food self-sufficiency including total control over the volume and price of imports.

Under President Trump, the trend towards US isolation is not just confined to trade, having left the Paris Climate Accord, withdrawn from the World Health Organisation and threatened to leave Europe to look after its own defence needs.

Of course, this leaves Ireland and Europe with a dilemma which is going to take skilled negotiation to limit the damage, but Europe has always come together to tackle a crisis.