Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The current round of WTO negotiations is ongoing and in the coming weeks further intensive efforts will be made to reach agreement in 2008.

The chair of the WTO agriculture negotiating committee, Crawford Falconer, issued his latest draft modalities paper in February, with a view to making progress in the agriculture negotiations. These negotiations are now focused on addressing several significant outstanding issues across the domestic support, export competition and market access areas which make up the agriculture negotiating pillar. Several substantial issues have yet to be decided upon and there is, as yet, no certainty as to a final outcome.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food carries out a continual range of assessments and analyses of the different negotiating proposals that emerge from the WTO discussions. This analysis covers all agricultural sectors, including the beef, dairy, sheep and pig sectors. It includes, in particular, the assessment of the impact of these proposals on specific product categories.

Similar estimations have been made by various representative bodies and shared with the Department. These detailed calculations are used to evaluate the various negotiating proposals which emerge from the discussions and to develop the Irish negotiating position.

Several other bodies and research institutes, in Ireland and elsewhere, have also carried out economic studies. Some of these analyses attempt a broader assessment of possible outcomes of the negotiations. Inevitably, these studies are based on a wide range of assumptions about issues yet to be decided in the negotiations. The Department also considers and uses these studies to inform negotiating strategies.

The EU Commission recently presented its latest analysis of possible impacts of the most recent proposals from the chairman of the WTO agriculture committee. This analysis is the subject of ongoing discussions between EU member states and the Commission.

The outcome of these negotiations will represent a significant challenge for Irish and EU agriculture. I am concerned with the current direction of the negotiations. I, and my Government colleagues, have and will continue to take every opportunity to express our concerns in the strongest terms in the various EU and WTO meetings dealing with these negotiations. We have also been very active in seeking allies for our position.

The Government will continue to insist the final WTO agreement is a balanced one. It will not be acceptable to me or the Government that EU agriculture is sacrificed for the sake of a deal. The EU has made significant contributions to these negotiations, including the move in the 2003 Common Agricultural Policy reforms to non-trade distorting decoupled payments. The reforms allowed the EU to commit to significant reductions in the levels of trade distorting supports, particularly in production-linked price supports. It is the responsibility of other WTO negotiating partners to make equivalent contributions.

I will continue to insist the Commission pursues balance in the negotiations. The EU, and in particular EU agriculture, cannot be the banker for this WTO round.

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