Michael Woods (Dublin North East, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on the WTO Doha Round trade negotiations. The Doha Round is primarily a development round with a special focus on the needs and interests of developing countries. This round should produce measurable improvements in access to international markets and trade opportunities for the world's poorest countries. I do not refer to improving the opportunities for large industrial farmers located in, for example, Brazil and Australia. When we make concessions on tariffs or market access, we should look to measures designed to allow small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa or Latin America, including those in Brazil, to get their goods into the international market and to obtain a fair price for them.

The developed countries must jump together on this. The EU should not be expected to make concessions alone while the CAIRNS group or other large-scale producers reap the benefits of a deregulated global marketplace.

The outcome of the talks should be balanced within and across all of the main elements of the Doha work programme and be based on a broad and ambitious agenda. Therefore, the privileges and benefits offered by, for example, the Cotonou Agreement to the poorest countries must be protected and the comparative advantages offered to them maintained.

Delivering developed products should be a priority. The poorest countries should not be asked in the Doha Round to open their markets or meet global tariff reduction targets. They need a breathing space to reform and develop their own economies and to make some headway integrating into the world economy. This is a profound task. The EU's approach is a complex balance of interests between the member states. The EU negotiating mandate agreed between the 25 member states favours continued liberalisation of trade in industrial goods and services and uses the agreed Common Agricultural Policy reforms as the basis for the EU's input to the agriculture liberalisation negotiations. I agree with this approach.

The EU's acceptance of the objective of abolition of agricultural export subsidies, coupled with its continued reform of CAP, most recently in 2003, was the major impetus towards relaunching the Doha round in July 2004. Without this breakthrough there would not have been a new round of talks in Hong Kong. Therefore, this concession from the EU's farmers cannot just be pocketed by other developed countries before the negotiations even begin. Other major participants, in particular the US and the Cairns group of agricultural exporting countries, such as Australia and Canada, must now fulfil their obligations and match what the EU is committed to doing in the agricultural sector.

Without special attention from governments, agriculture and, as a consequence, the rural environment would be changed utterly by the forces of international competition from industrial-scale producers intent only on maximising profits and that would dump the social and environmental costs on local economies and communities. No one wants to see this outcome. We want a balanced outcome. In sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 85% of people depend on agriculture in one form or another.

Ireland has been and will continue to be a clear beneficiary of international trade liberalisation. In the 1960s, 75% of our merchandise exports went to the United Kingdom. Today that figure is 18%. The Celtic tiger feeds on international trade. EU negotiators will seek market opening opportunities in tradeable goods and services as well as a balanced outcome on agriculture and a deal on fair trade for the world's poorest people. As such, we in Ireland have much to gain from ensuring that the WTO process continues and that clear rules are established to allow all countries and all populations within them to gain fair access to international markets with special supports for the weakest people.

Hong Kong is not the end of the road. It is certain that the negotiations will continue into 2006. A pro-development round, if properly resourced and implemented, could lift more people out of poverty, misery and deprivation than all the aid donations of the last 30 years. This is the great challenge of our times. It could transform the world in 15 years. I wish the Minister and Minister of State well in the negotiations next week.

See this speech in context