IFA renews opposition to World Trade Organisation stance on agriculture

By Ray Ryan

Thursday, December 03, 2009

THE Irish Farmers Association has renewed its opposition to the existing World Trade Organisation stance on agriculture.

Trade ministers and officials from 153 WTO member states met in Geneva this week to try to secure a broad agreement to restart negotiations on the Doha Round, which aims to slash tariffs and barriers to world trade.

However, since the three-day meeting started, ministers have issued mixed signals about their willingness to get the round back on track.

These talks collapsed in Geneva last year to the relief of farmers and the agrifood sector in Ireland which regarded the proposals on the table at that time as potentially devastating for their sectors.

Under those proposals, Europe and the United States would open up their markets to agricultural trade and, in exchange, get better access for manufacturers and service providers in markets such as China and India.

World leaders have pledged to conclude the Doha Round of global trade negotiations by 2010, but little progress has been made.

IFA president Padraig Walshe, who travelled to Geneva to monitor this week’s talks, said, contrary to the aspiration for Doha to be a ‘development round’, the current WTO proposals for agriculture do not protect small farmers in developing countries.

"The WTO will have to come forward with a new set of trade rules which recognises the importance of food security, environmental protection and biodiversity, and the critical part family farms play in the production of a sustainable supply of high quality food at affordable prices," he said.

Mr Walshe said to date WTO rules have only benefited multinational companies. Its present policies will lead to less food being produced globally.

"The biggest losers will be the poorest countries in the world, who aren’t being heard when Brazil, not a developing country from an agricultural point of view, purports to speak for them around the WTO table," he said.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, December 03, 2009