Speculation WTO will attempt to reach trade deal before year’s end
The collapse of the talks in July was greeted with relief by the Irish farm lobby which claimed the proposals then on the table would decimate this country’s agriculture and food processing sectors.
However, reports from Geneva indicate that World Trade Organisation (WTO) head Pascal Lamy is awaiting fresh proposals on the thorny issues of agriculture and industrial products before deciding on a ministerial meeting.
Mr Lamy said the financial and economic turmoil that has rocked global markets had cast the WTO talks in a new light, making it more likely countries would compromise.
European Union agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said there needed to be “a certain certainty” about the prospects of a deal before a ministerial meeting occurs.
But, she said, December may be the last chance for some time to nudge the long-sought accord to a conclusion.
“If we don’t get a positive deal in December, it would be very difficult to imagine ministers coming back in the first six months of 2009,” she said.
Meanwhile, Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Minister Brendan Smith said that it was essential to maintain a strong agricultural production base in the EU.
He was speaking during a discussion on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy, which took place at a specially convened meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels.
Minister Smith said daunting challenges ahead include increasing demands for food, climate change and reconciling the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the desire to produce more food.
Minister Smith warned that any reduction in food production in the EU would be taken up elsewhere where less efficient production systems exist and would result in a heavier carbon footprint.
“We must ensure that the EU’s policy objectives for the agriculture and food sector are upheld in the climate change debate,” he said.
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