WTO trade talks - If deal kills farming, then it’s no deal

WHEN our farmers, a sector of our community that benefited so tremendously from European Union membership, take to the streets to oppose the deal proposed by the EU’s trade commissioner Peter Mandelson at the World Trade Organisation’s Doha round, it may be time to sit up and listen.

When Mr Mandelson persists in proposing measures that, he admits, will mean “a heavy human and social cost on farmers in Europe,” and that “we are looking down the barrel of massive losses in EU farm receipts”, we should all be concerned.

If Mr Mandelson’s continuing refusal to be moved by the concerns expressed by Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan and 11 of her colleagues represents a new form of European democracy then all of us, especially proponents of the Lisbon treaty, should be alarmed.