From the point of view of the forthcoming World Trade Organisation talks, the new arrangements will enable the EU to take the initiative in the current negotiations and to negotiate from a position of strength. Decoupling and partial decoupling will enable a substantial proportion of direct payments – depending on the choices to be made by member states – to qualify as domestic support which has "no or at most minimal trade-distorting effects or effects on production"– the so-called Green Box. This has the advantage of protecting them from challenge in the WTO negotiations. I have made it absolutely clear that the outcome of the mid-term review represents the bottom line in so far as the WTO negotiations are concerned and that I will not agree to a new WTO round which requires further reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. The outcome of the negotiations on decoupling has, therefore, been most satisfactory from Ireland's point of view.