EU ‘conceding too much on agriculture’
President of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS), Padraig Gibbons, said the EU’s decision to offer tariff cuts of between 35% and 60% is likely to expose the agricultural sector to further cuts beyond the Luxembourg CAP reform agreement.
He said that for the milk and beef sectors, the EU offer increases the risk of a further CAP reform before 2013, unless the phased down of export refunds is over the longer term.
Mr Gibbons said the European Commission’s approach of repeatedly conceding on agriculture, with a view to making progress on non-agricultural issues and setting a November 8 deadline to agree agriculture, suggests that the EU is sacrificing the sector to get progress on trade in the other sectors.
This is a major concern as the Luxembourg CAP reform agreement was put forward by the Commission as sufficient to provide for this WTO Round, he said.
Mr Gibbons said it is crticial that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan demand the EU makes no further concessions on agriculture in the WTO negotiations.
He said there must be no further concessions on tariffs and it is essential that the phase down of export refunds goes well beyond the end of the Luxembourg CAP reform agreement in 2013.
Meanwhile, plans are going ahead for an IFA organised protest by farmers outside the EU offices in Dublin next Tuesday over the latest EU offer, which the ICMSA and ICSA have also sharply criticised.
