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What is the Export Trade Council?
The Export Trade Council (ETC) brings together senior ministers with an economic focus, the heads of the State agencies involved in promoting trade, tourism, investment and education abroad with the support of the embassy network, and members drawn from the private sector.
The ETC is chaired by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. The ETC has met regularly since 2011, holding special consultations in advance of the UK referendum.
The current members of the Council include the Chair: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan TD, and the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, TD, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, TD, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, TD, and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross TD.
The heads of the state agencies that work closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the embassy network in promoting trade, tourism, investment and education are also represented on the Council: Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Bord Bia, Tourism Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland.
The private sector is represented by IBEC and the Irish Exporters Association, as well as by a number of business people with a track record in the relevant sectors.
Source: Website of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
The work of the North-South Ministerial Council and
the British-Irish Council will become more important as mechanisms to develop detailed outworking of policy issues arising, and;
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade will continue to use the expertise of the Export Trade Council to advise the Government on this issue. The expertise of the Council will be focused on the issues arising from the UK’s disengagement from the EU.
Exports
Exporters have an immediate interest in Brexit. In terms of distribu- tion of exports, close to 14 per cent of all Irish exports went to the UK in 2015. With a more sluggish UK economy and weaker sterling, Irish exporters will have to work harder if they are to hold their markets in the UK, especially if sterling remains weak. For many exporters, it will mean having to accept cuts in their euro earnings. Of course, with weaker sterling, imports from the UK should fall in price, especially for the prices of many consumer foods.
Government is already tackling the area of trade in the context of Brexit. A special meeting of the Export Trade Council (ETC) was convened on 20 July; chaired by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan. Following the July meeting, Minister Flanagan stated that the ETC “had a very productive discussion which focused on how Ireland responds to the current challenges and opportunities.
Ireland has a number of key markets where we have a strong, estab- lished presence, such as the UK, the US, France and Germany – these and other EU markets present opportunities to deepen our market penetration.
The Minister’s press release also referred to the fact that market diver- sification had been identified as a key mitigating factor in regard to risks to the Irish economy, with particular reference to Brexit. The ETC meeting noted that new commercial attaché posts had been created in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and Romania, to enhance market access for Irish companies as part of the Department’s new economic diplomacy strategy.
In addition, there are plans to diversify and develop a market pres- ence in emerging markets in Latin America, Asia and Africa. The next ETC meeting will focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
Issues in Transport
Given Ireland’s openness as a trading economy, logistics and trans- port issues are likely to loom large in the Brexit negotiations. The issues include anything that might interfere with the movement
of people or goods, or changes to common regulatory regimes or technical standards between Ireland and the UK. The Chartered Institute of logistics and Transport is currently consulting its mem- bers to identify the concerns of the logistics and transport sector relating to Brexit. It will consider the input received and then decide how best it can make a contribution on behalf of the sector to the development of Ireland’s negotiating position.
One issue that will require particular attention is customs and bor- der controls. Ireland is the only EU Member State that shares a land-border with the UK. Accordingly, any traffic flowing to and from the UK, including traffics through to the UK to and from the rest of the world will be affected by any new customs/border con- trol regime. As a start point it is useful to see the scale of the trade affected. The most recent CSO data for 2015 show that over 40 per cent of seaborne traffic is with UK Ports. Table 1 sets out the data in question.
The foregoing statistics only show part of the picture. As well as seaborne trade with the UK, a proportion of non-UK trade, to other EU Member States and the rest of the world, moves through North- ern Ireland. While detailed statistics are not available, it is possible to provide evidence of such flows by combining official data for Northern Ireland with data for the Republic of Ireland.
Specifically, this is done by aggregating Port Statistics for Ireland and Northern Ireland for the year 2014. This shows that over 36 per cent of all 2.4 million container movements to and from the Island of Ireland go through Northern Ireland Ports – see Table 2.
These figures suggest that Northern Ireland’s share of container move- ment is much greater than would be expected if the share of all-Ireland gross domestic product (GDP) is used as an indicator. The most recent official GDP statistics puts Northern Ireland’s share of GDP at 20 per cent.
The CharTered InsTITuTe of LogIsTICs & TransporT 17
BREXIT