‘No prospect of trade deal in 2004’

There is no prospect of a new world trade agreement being finalised this year, Agriculture and Food Minister Joe Walsh said yesterday.

He told a meeting of the British Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body at Inchydoney, County Cork, he was disappointed with the breakdown of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun last September.

Contrary to some reports, the EU was not responsible for the breakdown nor, indeed, were the negotiations on agriculture the stumbling block.