With 27,000 Irish dairy farmers facing losses of up to one third of their annual income, rural areas are reacting strongly and their voices will be heard in the local elections. The decoupling of direct payments from production, as intended by Commissioner Fischler, will achieve two WTO related objectives. First, decoupled payments are classified under the WTO as supports that are non-trade distorting. They are known as "green box" supports. Second, the analysis indicates that farm production in the European Union, including Ireland, will fall when there is decoupling. This will result in the European Union largely withdrawing from export markets and increasing its imports of food products, with disastrous consequences for farming in Ireland.