Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 407: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the indications in the World Trade Organisation with particular reference to the implications for Irish agriculture; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26770/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Agreement was reached in Geneva in August 2004 on a framework setting out the structure and general content of the new World Trade Organisation, WTO, agreement. I am satisfied that the framework agreement secured the benefits to Irish farmers of the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy and represented a satisfactory outcome from Ireland's point of view. The detailed implementation of the framework has been the subject of ongoing negotiation at technical and political level with the aim of concluding an agreement at the WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong in December 2005. My overriding objective is to ensure that the terms of the final agreement can be accommodated without the need for further reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

More specifically, my priorities are to ensure that the phasing-out of all forms of export subsidies will be applied in parallel, as provided for under the framework agreement, and that the phasing-out period will be as long as possible, that Ireland's agricultural exports will remain competitive in the EU market through the continuation of adequate levels of tariff protection on imports from third countries and that the EU's system of direct payments which, following decoupling, qualify as non-trade-distorting, continue to be exempt from reductions under the new agreement. These objectives are consistent with the Commission's negotiating mandate as agreed in the Council.