Joe Callanan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I wish to speak on how the WTO talks will affect Irish agriculture. The three main areas of concern are domestic support, export subsidies and market access. It is important that the CAP and the single payment under the decoupled system are safeguarded under the green box because direct payments make a major contribution to farm incomes in Ireland.

The Doha mandate provided for reductions with a view to phasing out all forms of export subsidies. It is important that the phasing out is carried out over the longest period possible in a manner that causes least damage to our interests. Ireland has substantial exports of milk and beef to third countries which will not be competitive without export refunds. In other words, if the export refunds are abolished it will not be possible for Ireland to export to countries outside the EU. We must have time to develop our markets in the EU to fill that gap.

We must retain the maximum possible level of protection for market access through a combination of tariff cuts and other mechanisms, including designating certain products as "sensitive" and implementing a special safeguard clause to protect our major EU markets from increased competition from imports from some third countries.

Irish farmers are subject to full traceability of their beef, lamb and milk, while beef imports from Brazil and other countries outside the European Union are not subject to the same costly restrictions. Reducing tariffs substantially would prevent Ireland producing beef and milk at a profitable level. The only countries that would benefit are Brazil, New Zealand and Australia which have large farms and huge herds of cattle, and can produce beef at a low cost. The tariff reduction will not help poor countries. We need to help these countries first by enabling them to feed themselves. These countries do not have enough food to export. I have every confidence that the Minister for Agriculture and Food and the Minister of State at her Department, Deputy Brendan Smith, will bring back a reasonable deal. Never was there a greater need for such a deal.

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