This article is from page 73 of the 2008-06-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 73 JPG
CLARE farmers and ICSA general secretary Eddie Punch last week met with the new Minister for Ag- riculture, Brendan Smith, to put fur- ther pressure on the government to come out with a stronger and more unequivocal line on WTO.
“We are not interested in any more rubbish about a balanced deal, nor are we falling for the line that it’s too early to talk about a veto,” he said af- ter the meeting.
“The basics of the WTO deal on im- port tariffs have remained the same, the only change being a worsening of the tariff cut from 60 per cent to a
possible 73 per cent.”
“Against that backdrop, we cannot understand how the government con- tinues to fudge around the issue of the veto. While the approach seems to be to building alliances, there is a big risk that other member states will back down if Mandelson brings back a done deal.”
‘As long as Ireland refuses to even contemplate the veto, the commis- sion will try to divide and conquer member states. Meanwhile, farmers are more and more worried that a WTO sell-out is around the corner.”
On the CAP health check, the Crat- eee Lom astlere
“EU proposals for modulation,
involving cuts of 8 per cent to the Single Farm Payment, in order to re- direct some €2 billion to rural devel- Opment measures, are completely in- appropriate in the context of a global food security crisis.”
ICSA is concerned about imple- mentation of both the Malone and Aylward reports.
Mr Punch also highlighted issues regarding sheep fencing grants alon- side raising the inceasingly impor- tant issue of the 30-month rule situa- tion for BSE testing.
“Time is of the essence here as sheep numbers across Europe con- tinue to decline,” he continued.
‘This has gone beyond a joke at this
stage. Europe is dragging its heels here, and it is costing Irish farmers millions. ICSA emphasised to Min- ister Smith the need for the EU to move swiftly on this issue.”
ICSA maintains that the recent debacle around the REPS deadline, which has been missed by up to 10,000 farmers through no fault of their own, will cause more unneces- sary stress and hardship.
It was put to the minister that con- cessions must be made to accommo- date these farmers.
General Secretary, Mr Punch also outlined difficulties with the disad- vantaged area payments, which need upward revision.