Ireland Retreats From Isolation

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30943, 27 December 1965, Page 8

Ireland Retreats From Isolation

The recent free trade agreement between Ireland and the United Kingdom is an important step in Ireland’s retreat from her self-imposed isolation. The Prime Minister, Mr Sean Lemass, has been primarily responsible for the fresh, outward-looking policies of Ireland over the last 10 years or so. Quietly but firmly he has steered farming and manufacturing towards the twin goals of efficiency and exporting. The latest agreement is at once a recognition of the progress already made and a calculated gamble on the benefits to be achieved from further exposure of the Irish economy to competition. The British Prime Minister, Mr Wilson, also deserves credit for fostering the spirit of co-operation between Britain and Ireland—and between the Republic and Northern Ireland. The agreement spells the doom of the philosophy of Sinn Fein—We Ourselves. From July 1 next year all Irish manufactures and most agricultural products will enter Britain free of duty. In return, Ireland will reduce tariffs against British imports, but more gradually: by 10 equal annual cuts, until free trade is reached in 1975. Ireland is already heavily dependent on the British market, and the agreement will tie her economy even more closely to the United Kingdom. As with the European Economic Community and the AustraliaNew Zealand Free Trade Area, there are implications of closer political ties. “Don’t let anyone tell you “ it isn’t political ”, an Irish official is reported, in the “Economist”, as saying; “of course it is”. The agreement will be closely studied in Wellington before New Zealand officials leave for London in the New Year to discuss New Zealand’s trade agreements with the United Kingdom. The agreement with Ireland has a direct bearing on New Zealand’s exports to Britain of meat and dairy products and on the separate agreements covering these New Zealand exports. The agreement with Ireland permits British farmers to sell, after two months instead of three, beef fattened from Irish calves at the subsidised British price. This should give the Irish cattle industry a fillip; and if “home-killed” supplies rise markedly as a result, exporters of beef and other meat to the United Kingdom will feel the effect. An increase from 10,000 tons a year to 23,000 tons in the Irish butter quota will help the Irish dairy farmer, largely at the expense of the New Zealand dairy farmer. This, also, will be used as a talking point by the New Zealand negotiators. That Ireland, a country which until recently has been violently anti-British, should receive so signal a favour from England will have been noted with wry amusement in Wellington. If the British Commonwealth still means anything, it must mean that New Zealand can expect to get no less favourable consideration in the forthcoming negotiations.