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.

Irish farmers have a long and colourful tradition of street protests and, like the boy who cried “wolf” far too often, there is often a suspicion that things might not be as bad as they are depicted, but in this instance the concern is well founded and deeply worrying.

The implications of the Mandelson deal go across communities. Tens of thousands of Irish workers in food processing, tens of thousands of our remaining farmers and anyone concerned about Ireland being dependent on food imports have many reasons for worry.

Agriculture is just one of the industries being dealt with at the WTO talks and we have been told for decades that western protectionism, subsidies and tariffs are keeping millions in poverty in the third world.

If the Mandelson proposals were to significantly improve the lot of the world’s poor it would be some consolation, but it is not at all certain that they will have any such impact.

It cannot make sense to entrust our food needs to the lowest bidder, and it would be immoral and insane to allow Europe to be dependent on food imports. There must be a middle path and if the death of European farming is the cost of a Mandelson-engineered deal then there cannot be a deal, it’s as simple as that.

This sorry saga also raises another question: why is it that politicians superfluous to national requirements because of failed policies or unacceptable behaviour are in a position to assume such tremendous powers as European commissioners — free to thumb their noses at our elected government?