WTO deal ‘threat to food safety’

CONSUMERS were warned yesterday that the proposed world trade deal being negotiated in Geneva poses a threat to food safety.

Fine Gael agriculture and food spokesman Michael Creed, TD, said Irish food producers have worked tirelessly and invested heavily to ensure that the food they produce is of the highest quality and fully traceable to source.

“The current trade deal on offer will mean that all their efforts will have been in vain as the European Union market will become fully exposed to imports from dollar-a-day economies, where hygiene, food safety and animal welfare are non-issues,” he said.

Mr Creed said Fine Gael will be calling on the Government in a Private Members Bill in the Dáil to mount a major political and diplomatic initiative to protect the Common Agricultural Policy and Irish agricultural interests.

It will also urge the Government to ensure that food safety and security, climate change, animal welfare, and human health interests are priorities in the context of any agreement and to signal its willingness to use all necessary measures to defeat the current proposals.

The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association addressed the issues at a meeting in Dublin yesterday of the European Peoples Party agricultural forum, headed by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.

Strong support is also emerging among local authorities for an IFA motion.

County councils in Cavan, Carlow, Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Waterford and Wexford have already passed the motion which states that the current proposals represent “a grave and unacceptable threat” to Irish farming, the food industry and employment.

IFA president Padraig Walshe said the outcome of the current negotiations would cost the Irish economy €4 billion and see 50,000 farmers put out of business, along with 50,000 job losses in the processing sector.

Plans are meanwhile going ahead for a farming and agri- business protest in Dublin tomorrow, organised by the IFA, ICMSA and Macra na Feirme.

It is to coincide with a visit by European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso to the Forum on Europe. A three-hour industry and agri-business standstill is also being arranged countrywide.