Trade talks: Lisbon support of offer

OPINION polls show farmers trading Lisbon Treaty support for a favourable outcome to negotiations on world trade in agriculture.

They see it as legitimate to demand a firmer EU policy on world trade in return for their vote. They hold the European Commission responsible for the trade negotiations, and while they generally support the Lisbon Treaty on its own, they don’t like what they see coming down the track beside it.

Farmers have been very supportive of the EU. Entry into the EEC 35 years ago brought them from the dark ages into an era of previously unknown prosperity.