The Gazette 1967/71

Mr. Mclnerney said that the effective adminis tration of the Community Agricultural Policy will require close co-operation between the British, Irish and Northern Ireland governments. This, he said, will also be true as far as the harmonisation of agricultural legislation is concerned. "An important feature of an expanded Com munity Agricultural Policy in these islands will be the close co-operation of respective agricultural marketing boards and intervention agencies in the different commodity groups," said Mr. Mclnerney. "This is of particular relevance to the agricultural trade with Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland has a very substantial import and export trade in agricultural products to the North of Ireland, importing some £9m. worth of agricul tural commodities in both directions over the Border and whose future under E.E.C. would be finally legal." Professor Louis Smith, University College, Dub lin, said that productivity in agriculture had been going up twice as much per head as industry or any other sector of the community. He said there was a tendency to over-produce. However, it was not easy for farming people to change to other occupations. Over-production and low incomes in agriculture were some of the things that States try to remedy. Governments intervene more and more and as a result divergent legislation comes into operation. There was a need to achieve harmon isation between government legislation and law. Professor Smith said he had dealt mostly with the economic aspect of agriculture in his paper because he felt that the legal side was governed by that. He asked how were they going to get harmonisation between the two aspects? "It is going to be a major job," he said. Dr. Frederick Macs, Senior Research Officer in European Law, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, who dealt mostly with marketing in his paper, said that there was a view widely held in the Community and in Britain, that people concerned with British agriculture and the E.E.C. either belonged in the Common Market Safeguards Campaign or were die-hard opponents of British entry. This was not necessarily so, he said. He sincerely hoped it would be possible for the U.K., together with the other candidate coun tries, to become part of a dynamic and expanding community. He believed that agriculture would be one of the major topics for discussion at the next round of negotiations. One should set one's sights higher, and one should not forget such other rele vant topics as European economics, monetary and 108

had changed. They had acquired considerable bargaining powers with third countries. They were a part of the first major commercial world power, and had shown greater political independence of the super-great powers during the sixties. Also, the Communities were obliged to start a foreign policy while exercising their powers. Very few aspects of international trade were not subject to political options, and the Communities had to make choices which were seldom purely economic —such as adopting a stand inside international economic organisations. Dr. Gaudet said that the influence of the Com munities on foreign policy was so great that it would be advisable to recognise it and to study the consequences of it. Economic integration had reached the point where the Communities did in fact make decisions on foreign policy and it would be better to replace the present timid and danger ous empiricism with proper structures. On neutrality, and Sweden in particular, Dr. Gaudet said that was a problem only the Swedes could answer. In his view the problem was also one of the analysis of the consequences of econo mic integration on neutrality. Throughout the conference there were remin ders that however slow the progress towards poli tical union, the degree of integration already involved is immense. Dr. Arved Deringer, of Ger many, speaking on community legislation quoted from a Sinn Fein pamphlet handed out by demon strators on the day when Mr. Lynch opened the conference. The pamphlet said Ireland should remain a nation, and not become a province. These young people, said Dr. Deringer, had the right idea; it was better to think in terms of a federation, not of an international agreement when discussing the Communities. The background paper on the agricultural dis cussion was prepared by Mr. M. J. Mclnerney, lecturer in the Department of Applied Economics, U.C.D. In his lengthy and detailed paper, which received much praise from later speakers, Mr. Mclnerney dealt with many aspects of Irish agriculture. He said that the initial impact of E.E.C. mem bership for Ireland will be similar to that of a major trade agreement. "Experience of recent trade agreements," he said, "has shown that the countervailing power of stronger nations has reduced the benefits of these agreements. It is to be hoped that E.E.C. membership and the benefits that accrue from it, will not depend solely on the negotiating power of the applicants."