China keen to revive food imports from Ireland, Irish PM says

By Liz Lee

BEIJING, Jan 7 (Reuters) - China has signalled it would want to import quality food from Ireland, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said about his meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who also pushed a message about China engaging with the European Union.

In a clip posted on Martin's X account on Wednesday, the prime minister said both leaders had a "constructive" discussion ranging from the beef and dairy trade to China-EU ties.

Martin's Tuesday meeting with Li came a day after his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, part of a five-day visit that the Irish leader said would have "a significant economic dimension".

The visit reflects Beijing's bid to strengthen ties with individual European nations amid strained China-EU relations, taking bilateral meetings as opportunities to convey its messages to the bloc.

"(Li) indicated that looking into the future they'd wanted to import high-quality food products from Ireland...there's some work still ongoing but it's clear that we are making progress on (the beef issue)," Martin said.

The talks with China's second-ranking official also covered the impacts of China's dairy tariffs, he added, saying the Chinese will look into it.

Ireland exports the bulk of the output from its beef and dairy industries, which are major employers in the country.

Irish beef exports to China have been suspended since 2024 after a mad cow disease case, and it is among Europe's largest exporters of dairy, shipping about 6 billion euros ($7 billion) annually.

The Chinese readout of the meeting, released late Tuesday, talked about deepening cooperation and broadening trade with Ireland in sectors such as aircraft leasing, healthcare, green energy and artificial intelligence but made no mention of beef or dairy.

ENGAGING EU ON TRADE

In the meeting, Li emphasised the Asian country's desire for trade discourse between China and the EU, the Irish leader said.

"Consistent with other meetings I've had, there is a very strong desire to engage with the European Union candidly in terms of trading issues," Martin said.

"(Li) was very clear to me that that was his desire, that he felt that ultimately it was in China and Europe's interests to develop a level playing field to maintain an open system."

China-EU ties have been tense since the EU imposed levies on Chinese EV imports in 2024, prompting Chinese retaliation including tariffs on EU dairy products.

Martin, the first Taoiseach to visit China in 14 years, also attended a signing event between Irish education institutions and local partners, and talked tourism opportunities with Trip.com in his visit spanning Beijing and Shanghai.

($1 = 0.8557 euros)

(Reporting by Liz Lee and Xiuhao Chen; Editing by Toby Chopra)