This article is from page 37 of the 2007-07-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 37 JPG
IRISH farmers are once again breathing a collective sigh of relief this week as the collapse of the latest round of World Trade Organisations have seen them dodge a potential disaster, at least for the time being.
In an increasingly familiar pattern, the latest round of the WTO talks collapsed in Potsdam in Germany on Tuesday last leaving the future of agriculture in Ireland and across the EU zone in a continued state of limbo.
Commenting after the collapse IFA President, Padraig Walshe, launched
an astonishing attack on EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, describing him as “completely dis- credited, his negotiating tactics in shreds.”
‘There is now a very serious ques- tion mark over Peter Mandelson’s ability as the EU trade negotiator, and the EU Commission should se- riously consider removing him from the WTO trade negotiations/”
Before the collapse of the talks the IFA had claimed that strategy being employed by Mandelson in relation to the WTO would cut EU farm in- come by €20 billion, and the G20 proposal would mean an income cut
of s37 billion.
“It is evident from analysis of the October 2005 EU offer on agricul- ture, that the beef sector is the most vulnerable to tariff cuts ranging from 60 per cent in the case of unproc- essed full carcass beef to 50 per cent in the case of beef cuts,” he said.
“The beef sector accounts for one- third (34 per cent) of Ireland’s agri- cultural output, and involves about 90,000 farmers. It is clearly a vital national interest for Ireland, worth $1.5 billion.”
Indeed, in a letter delivered to Commissioner Mandelson before the collapse to talks, the IFA President
said it is clear from our analysis that the tariff cut offers you have made in the case of “high value beef prod- ucts” will undermine the EU price by almost 50 per cent.
‘Farmers in the EU are obliged to meet high standards with regard to food safety and tractability, animal welfare and protection of the envi- ronment. IFA has first-hand evidence that standards of production in some major food exporting countries, for example Brazil, fall far short of the standards demanded from EU farm- ers, and indeed far short of the stand- ards necessary to guarantee safe food to consumers in the EU.”