NI agriculture interests must be listened to in trade deals, says deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly
The interests of the agriculture sector in Northern Ireland must be listened to in trade deals negotiated by the UK Government, deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly has said.
Recently, the Government reached a deal with the US which removes the 25% tariff rate on UK steel and aluminium exports in exchange for giving America's agricultural industry greater access to British markets.
Stormont Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir has previously warned that food from Northern Ireland should not be "undercut by cheap imports" from the US.
Speaking during a visit to the Balmoral Show near Lisburn, Ms Little-Pengelly said it was "incredibly important" that Westminster worked closely with the devolved regions in negotiating trade deals.
She said: "That is not unique to the US, that is in relation to every trade deal that the UK Government may be participating in.
"It is important to remember that the UK Government hadn't been responsible for negotiating trade deals for a very long time because that is something the EU did on behalf of the member states.
"So, it is a new system that they are implementing and I have raised directly to the Government the need to make sure that Northern Ireland interests are listened to in terms of that negotiating mandate; are listened to in terms of those discussions."
The deputy First Minister added: "At the heart of that is our agriculture and agri-food sector.
"We want to protect that. Locally, we have incredibly nutritious, high quality locally grown food.
"People want those high standards and that has to be at the heart of those discussions and any discussions around possible future trade deals."
First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the detail of the deal reached with the US was still to be understood.
She said: "What I want to say to our local farmers is we will have their back, we will stand up for them.
"We are very proud of what we produce here. We are very proud of our beef, we are very proud of our vegetable sector, we are very proud across the board and we have got a very clean, green product to offer.
"We are not going to be involved where our farmers are pushed down or the quality is pushed down because of some trade deal they have done at the last minute.
"We will work our way through the detail of this but we will very much stand on the side of our local farmers."