Commission has been 'reined in' on trade offers, says Taoiseach
Irish farm leaders have criticised EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson on the conditional concessions he has already made on farm products ahead of the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Hong Kong next month, and claimed he had gone beyond his mandate.
But the Taoiseach, at a commemoration for former Agriculture Minister and War of Independence leader Sean Moylan in Kiskeam, Co Cork, said that situation had been pulled back.
"Thankfully, I think we have reined that in during the past few weeks.
"We have a situation now where the Agricultural Council and the General Affairs Council have given a very clear line of what the mandate is," he said.
Responding to questions, he said Mr Mandelson was trying to go outside the mandate.
"We believe he was trying to go too far. I think we have pulled that back now," he said, stressing he believed the EU is now going into the negotiations in a more satisfactory position than Mr Mandelson was trying force it into a month ago.
Mr Ahern said that as a trading nation, Ireland would like to see a decision taken in Hong Kong but not a decision at any cost. Trade liberalisation is a good thing, particularly for an open country like ours.
"We certainly believe the negotiations have to be handled very carefully," he said.
The Taoiseach said last week's sugar reform negotiations were very difficult, but he believed Ireland got a satisfactory arrangement in the end because there is another two years to continue growing.
"And then we got very substantial resources, far higher than what they were offering us in the first place," he said.
Mr Ahern said Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan now has a substantial package which she will be able to use to try and ease the impact and move forward.
But IFA president John Dillon warned that farmers' involvement in social partnership could be severely tested, depending on how the Government decides to allocate EU compensation to beet growers.
"To give the compensation to Greencore would undermine the whole process and irrevocably damage the principle of inclusion," he said, adding that it would be a political scandal for the Government to give the company €130 million of windfall funding.
