Barroso: EU expects pay-back for concessions

OTHER countries must open their markets to Europe’s goods and services in return for the EU’s moves on agriculture that will benefit developing nations, the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has warned.

Irish farmers say they have been sacrificed in the Hong Kong World Trade agreement at the weekend and believe EU concessions will cost the country 50,000 jobs and the economy €1.2 billion.

Mr Barroso, speaking in Brussels yesterday, warned other WTO members that the offer to eliminate export subsidies by 2013 was conditional on other countries doing the same.