EU farming on ‘special offer’
In the run-up to the world trade talks by 35 key negotiating countries, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had accused EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson of overstepping his mandate and offering too much on agriculture subsidies.
When new negotiating drafts on trade in agricultural and industrial goods were presented by WTO mediators at the end of May, only Sweden and Britain sided with EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.
Pro-farming nations such as France and Ireland were joined in opposition by Germany, which said large emerging economies such as China would be allowed to shelter entire sectors of their industry from outside competition.
Poland and Lithuania were reported to have real problems, while Finland, Greece, Italy, Spain and Hungary were “concerned”. There was also a flurry of criticism from the EU’s main business lobbies.
Nevertheless, a further sell-out of EU agriculture was Mandelson’s first bid on Monday.
His spokesman, Irishman Peter Power, said Mandelson’s proposal to reduce farm tariffs by 60%, up from the existing offer of 54%, was “a considerable advance that would inject momentum into the talks”.
Luckily for EU farmers, this “special offer” was rejected, with Brazil dismissing it as “mere propaganda”.
The worrying thing was the lack of early reaction from EU member states, with only France again standing up for farmers. Michel Barnier, the French Agriculture Minister, said that no EU state would be prepared to accept this new proposal.
French negotiators said the new number put forward by Mandelson simply reflected the inclusion of tropical products in his calculations.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel said the offer was “nothing new” and French State Secretary for Trade Anne-Marie Idrac denied that the EU was ready to raise its offer in any way.
That must have been a let-down for the Irish Exporters’ Association which had warned our Government not to sacrifice the wider interests of the Irish economy in order to protect farmers in global trade talks.
But it left EU farmers realising they are only a bargaining chip which could be given away cheaply.
Meanwhile, IFA President Padraig Walshe was telling France’s President Sarkozy in Dublin that the trade deal had weighed heavily on farmers’ minds during the Lisbon referendum debate. After the latest giveaway offer in Geneva it is unlikely farmers would even turn up for another referendum.
As the week goes on, farmers can only pray they will have the last laugh. Logic seems to have gone out the window, with the EU prepared to slash farm tariffs by 60% but the US saying it would only lower farming subsidies if emerging countries cut their industrial tariffs.
With every minute that passes without a deal, farmers can only hope that the world trade talks founder. It would be seen as the biggest setback in the history of international trade talks, but nothing less is needed to re-invigorate EU farming after its relegation to the status of a negotiating “special offer”.
Farmers can only hope that while they bring in the harvest in August, European politicians and officials wil have left for their month off without progress at Geneva. As a result, with India’s minority government in a precarious position and America’s presidential and congressional elections looming, world trade deals would be forgotten about.
Even if ministers reach agreement in Geneva, farmers can still hope that converting a deal’s basic formulae into tariff schedules for thousands of products, rules on anti-dumping, or the services negotiations would fail, before George W Bush leaves office, leaving him no time to pass a finished, or nearly finished, agreement on to John McCain or Barack Obama.
