(ixcerpts from a Leaflet produced by the Socialist Republican '’olfe Tone Society) The following points list the main advantages to Ireland and Britain of a Free Trade Agreement : Advantages for Ireland (1) Possibly better agricultural prices; the “sugar" meant to serve as coating for the bitter pill of free trade in manufactures. Better agricultural prices might mean the extension of British cattle subsidies to Irish cattle. Would this make mwh difference though ? Irish cattle prices are very high now and the high demand for them will probably continue for years. The Irish Government will also try to get a better deal for Irish dairy products, butter and bacon ~ perhaps the benefit of subsidy from Britain for these, or larger quotas. But the Danes and New Zealanders are bound to object violently, and it is hard to see Ireland getting great improvenents here. Further, by giving Irish agricultural products the benefit of a “subsidy”, Britain is not being generous. She is giving only a fair price, expressing the real value of the goods in question, which would otherwise have to be sold at less vhan their value in the “normal” artificially rigged British warket, where agricultural goods are normally sold below thoir cost of production. (2) It might bring more British capital to Ireland. This would be an advantage on the premises of ir. Lemass's economic policy, but it is only & possibility. .ioreover, it is highly likely that whenever new British capita] were attracted here in free trade conditions would be even wre “parasitical" than much of it is already, that is, used to buy up Irish firms, shops, the distributive trade, land, etc., when Ireland becomes to all intents and purposes as wuch a part of Britain's hone market as Lan= cashire. Would British businessmen come to Ireland to take advantage of our cheaper labour ? Some of them might for a time; but in the long term it is wore likely that many mre Irish workers, failing to find industrial employment at home, will go over to Britain to taxe jobs there ~ a Britain which under the new Economic Plan will have a labour shortage of 200,000 jobs by 1970, the period when free trade would be real! » starting to hit employment here. What would be the effect on forsig:: son-British firms ? They might still be possibly attracted by grants ané <hneap labour ~ but it would no longer be possible for the Irish Governmer~ to stipulate that they produce primarily for export - except for exports outside the Free Trade Area. Foreign products coming in must inevitably have free accuss not only to the British market but also to the Irish "home" market. (3) A third advantage might be to expand the warket for Northern Treland goods, by giving then free entry to the south. This is something pro= gressive Irish people should welcome in so far as better terms for Six Coimty businesses help to give employment in Ireland for Irish people. But this could presumably be done without the need for an Anglo~Irish Free Trade Area. A North-South Free Trade Area is quite a feasible proposit~ ion, though it would reyuire that southern imyTts frou the North should have certificates of origin to ensure that they were made or had a signif~ icant proportion of their value added there. This is something which the Labour and Republican movement in Ireland might well consider advocating, as Trish nationalists have generally been in favour of a mified Irish economy. It would also have the benefit of driving a wedge between the Six Counties and Britain to a certain extent.
The Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area : continued /
So much then for the advantages or possible advantages of the Free Trade
Agreement for ireland. What of the advantages for Britain? These, it is
suggested, far outweigh the former. The wain ones would be the following :
Advantages to Britain {1) Zconomically it would expand Britain's indust~
rial markets, and help her exports at the expense of other countries which
would have to overcome tariffs in order to sell their goods in Ireland.
(2) It would assure Britain of Ireland's food exports, and particularly meat
and livestock exports, at a time when demand for these is growing in other
countries of Surope, and Irish exports are expanding there, to Britain's
possible loss. The Argentine and New Zealand are no longer as reliable
suppliers of Britain's needs as they used to be.
(3) It would make Ireland mre dependent on Britain's goodwill politically
and economically than at any time since the Union period. Having entered
a Free Trade Area, it becomes wore difficult to withdraw the longer one is in.
No guarantees could be given that Britain, having Ireland at her economic
mercy, would not over a period of time use her economic power to turn the
country into a glorified cattle ranch and tourist resort. British business
has as little interest in seeing industry flourish in Ireland as she has in
setting up industry in the Highlands of Scotland. And it is only by im
creasing industry in Ireland that the Irish population can miintain its
present size, not to speak of increasing in numbers. Our entire historical
experience should have hawmered home the lssson that British business has
no interest in a prosperous industrial Ireland. The way in which the last
Trade Agreement was broken by Britain last October shows that things have not
changed with the years.
(4) A further political advantage to Britain could be that, by waking the
Twenty Six Counties even more dependent on her than at present, this would
fit in quite well with possible changes in British policy in relation to Ire~
land as a whole. It should always be remembered that, unlike many people in
our progressive movement here in the South, Britain always sees Ireland as a
whole. Her political and economic policy in relation to Ireland takes the
position on both sides of the border simultaneously into account. At the
present time, Unionism and the tnionist Party, the main political support for
British influences in Ireland, is showing wany signs of losing support in the
North. The decline in the Unionist vote in the last Inmerial election, and
the rise of a Labour opposition in the North, are indications of this. A
gain of 7/8 seats by anti~lnionists in the North could lay the basis for an
anti~Unionist Government there. In the vote for the University-for~Derry
issue in Stormont the other month, the Unionist Government had 4 majority of
only 2. The prospect is therefore emerging ~ long though it may be — of
Stormont, which was established as the spearhead of political reaction in
Ireland, being used some time in the coming years by an anti-lnionist Govern
ment for progressive purposes. It is therefore clearly in the interests of
intelligent “iuperialists" in Britain to make plans accordingly, and do their
best to wake of the Southern state as nearly an economic satellite of the
United Kingdom as possible. Such “iachiavellianksm" way never have entered
Harold Wilson's head, but political considerations of this kind may not be
totally beyond the ken of Sir Algernon Rumbold and his colleagues on the
British negotiating team in ow Free Trade talks. They have certainly been
The Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area ;: continued /
publicly aired by some Conservatives in Britain, for example, the Bow Group. Britain shoul] not be thought t have any compunction in "ditching" the Ulster Unionists if she could thereby secure a closer economic and political hold on the whole of Ireland. fhis may seem a far fetched picture, but it is something to bear in mind. It would seem, therefore, that to condone the setting up of a Pree Trade Area would be tantamount to accepting 4 cynical form of neo-colonialism. Does Mr. Wilson know ? Does he care ?
D.R. O'Connor Lysaght.