Meat industry wants agri-food sector defended at WTO

A TOUGH defence of the agri-food sector in Ireland and the rest of the European Union is being sought by Meat Industry Ireland in the world trade negotiations, which enter a crucial phase in Geneva today.

MII, representing processors, said the EU is the largest importer of food and agricultural products in the world and its offer on market access has already conceded too much on import tariff reductions.

Cormac Healy, spokesman, said tough pragmatic negotiation on agriculture does not mean disadvantages for Ireland in other elements of the WTO.

“There is nothing in the offer on non-agricultural market access or in services that would be jeopardised by the EU sticking to its negotiating mandate on agriculture,” he said.

MII met with Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan, before she travelled to Geneva yesterday for the negotiations.

Ms Coughlan said she is committed to a successful conclusion, but not at the price of further concessions in agriculture.

“I will be insisting that EU and Irish agriculture will not be sacrificed for the sake of a new agreement,” she said.

Ms Coughlan pointed out that the EU has already made significant contributions to the agriculture negotiations.

She said the EU offer on tariff reductions last October was not only conditional, but was at the limit of its negotiating position.

Oxfam has meanwhile warned that ministers in Geneva will be faced with the task of resolving hundreds of problems.

The World Trade Organisation published fresh proposals last weekend in a bid to secure agreement, but the document has 760 pairs of brackets indicating areas where member states are in dispute.

Celine Charveriat, head of Oxfam’s Make Fair Trade campaign, said this means the equivalent of each one of the WTO’s 149 members having five different problems with the offer.

This shows negotiations are still a long way from the promised deal that would help lift millions of people out of poverty, she said.