Chances of WTO deal diminish

THE prospects of a world trade deal being agreed this year have been dealt a serious blow, with Germany moving to back the positions adopted by France and Ireland in defending the interests of European farmers.

German Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer, who had talks with Minister Mary Coughlan in Berlin earlier this week, said that food scarcity was due to the population explosion and rising living standards in emerging countries.

“It was not because of European Union agricultural policies or to the drive to produce fuel from crops,” he later told reporters from Brussels.