The challenges facing Irish beef exporters have been highlighted this weekend with the publication of figures that show many EU states are importing beef from Latin America because it is cheaper than home-produced beef, even with full duties and tariffs.
Under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), nearly €1 billion worth of beef can be imported into the EU without restriction.
But because of economies of scale and a flaw in the agreement, Latin American exporters have been able to fill all their duty-free quota with prime cuts of beef that have been very successful on the European market.
The business has been so successful that for the past three years, importers have been prepared to pay full tariffs and duties on additional imports not covered by the agreement and still make a profit.
Figures published by the EU last week have shown that in the first half of the GATT trading year, EU importers have almost doubled the level of beef imports over and above the tariff-free quotas.
In the last year-long trading period, European importers, paying full duties and tariffs, imported 62,000 tonnes of beef from Brazil and Argentina.
Figures released this week show that in the first six months of the trading year, just over 42,000 tonnes of fully levied beef has arrived in the EU.
Of the total, both Germany and the Netherlands increased their imports with full duty and tariffs by the region of 5,000 tonnes each, to over 9,000 and 10,000 tonnes respectively.
Spanish imports almost tripled, from a low base of 350 tonnes to 1,300 tonnes.
The UK increased its imports by over 70 per cent to 8,600 tonnes, while French imports rose by 43 per cent to over 2,000 tonnes.
Irish imports of this beef were 14 per cent or 145 tonnes ahead of corresponding year earlier levels.
Irish producers and exporters have been complaining about the GATT regulations, which they said should have placed restrictions on the quality of the cuts which the Latin Americans are allowed export.
They have been demanding that in the next World Trade Agreement, the Latin Americans must be forced to balance the expensive cuts with cheaper ones so their beef will be less competitive when levied by import taxes.
Latin American imports into key markets serviced by Irish exporters, especially Britain, have been a cause of major concern over the past two years.