With impeccable timing, the former Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, announced that the Egyptian authorities had agreed in principle to restore the £100 million live cattle trade, as the nation went to the polls in early June. At the time, Mr Yates was accused by the opposition of pulling a crude political stroke but the reality was rather more prosaic; the Egyptians had been mulling over the idea of restoring the live cattle trade for several weeks but clearance from the veterinary authorities came in time for it to be announced on election day.
Three months on, little substantial progress has been made. A delegation of Irish veterinary experts and other officials has visited Egypt on two separate occasions in the past month, as part of a sustained effort to assuage concerns over BSE, but there has been no further movement from Cairo. To compound matters, a further sticking point has emerged with the Egyptian demand that the Irish authorities should underwrite a new £5 million beef processing facility. The Government has rejected this demand, offering by way of compensation some additional technical supports for the Egyptian authorities. This is the correct approach. Capitulating to - what one might politely call - an unorthodox demand by the Egyptians would create an unhealthy precedent in other export markets.
The Government faces one other, more substantial hurdle. Recent publicity about illegal British beef exports surfacing in North Africa and the seizure of British beef bearing Irish stamps in Germany this month has hardly helped to shore up public confidence in Egypt. There will be understandable local concerns that Egypt is being used as some kind of dumping ground for BSE-infected beef. In truth, these fears are groundless. Ireland can point to an appreciable decline in the incidence of BSE; only four cases were recorded last month, compared to 18 such cases in November 1996.
But the Government must weigh a number of factors in deciding its next move. The importance of the Egyptian market - both because of its own value and because of its status as a potential gateway to other markets in Libya and Iran - is widely acknowledged. And the Government must always be conscious of the danger that other beef exporters, notably Australia and Argentina, will muscle in on Irish markets. The concerns of the IFA, who met a delegation from the Egyptian embassy yesterday and of Mr Paul Connaughton, the chairman of the Fine Gael Agriculture Committee, are legitimate and well grounded.
But this State, which exports some £70 million of frozen meat to Egypt annually, must also be sensitive to Egyptian opinion and to political realities in Cairo. In all the circumstances, the Government's best policy might be to give the Egyptian authorities some small breathing space by holding off on pressure for a resumption of the live cattle trade - at least until the recent controversies about beef begin to fade in the memory. The Egyptians have already signalled that they will restore the live trade. The hope must be that they will, in time, be as good as their word.