EU assures no concessions at WTO

EUROPEAN UNION Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has assured farm and co-op leaders that Brussels will make no concessions in the world trade talks, beyond the mandate it has been given by member states.

She gave the pledge at a meeting with the presidents of agricultural bodies, COPA and COGECA, on the latest developments in the WTO negotiations.

Presidents Rudolf Schwarzbock of COPA and Donal Cashman of COGECA, who collectively represent 15 million people working on EU farms and more than 40,000 agricultural co-operatives, raised strong concerns about the direction of the WTO negotiations are taking.

Mr Schwarzbock said that while the EU had already made concessions, “this must not mean that we make offer after offer, without receiving anything in return”.

Mr Cashman, a former president of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society and the Irish Farmers Association, said the voice of the majority of farmers in developed and developing WTO countries is not being heard.

“There must not be an outcome in the interest of big exporters of agricultural products only,” he said.

The delegation from COPA-COGECA said it is now time for Europe’s trading partners to contribute their part.

WTO chief Pascal Lamy set an end of June deadline yesterday for a tariff and subsidy cutting deal in farm and industrial goods, saying hopes for a global trade pact this year depended on the outcome.