Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Kerry South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 131: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her priorities for the current round of world trade talks and the summit due in Hong Kong in December 2005; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26458/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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. The detailed implementation of this framework has been the subject of ongoing negotiation at technical and political level and the aim is to conclude an agreement at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in December 2005. 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. My over-riding objective in the further negotiations is to ensure that the terms of a new 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; 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 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.