Seanad debates

Wednesday, 2 July 2003

Common Agricultural Policy: Statements.

 

It was a singular achievement to obtain what has been obtained, as it was the most difficult of these rounds of negotiations. We have to accept certain realities. The European Union had to achieve a favourable position in advance of the WTO round. There was a need for reform of the CAP itself, independently of that, but to imagine that we could have gone into a WTO round and that within that round we could have continued to keep product price support as a central element of the Common Agricultural Policy would have been to deceive ourselves. I note that the Minister has said, in a very significant statement, that this is his bottom line with regard to the WTO. I welcome that and I am confident that the European Union will maintain that position within the WTO round as it develops.

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