Bruton welcomes ’highly significant’ and ‘historic’ WTO deal

Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton said the “historic” World Trade Organisation(WTO) agreement would “cut customs red tape and bureaucracy, making it cheaper, smoother and quicker for exporters to sell internationally.”

He was speaking on his return from the ministerial council talks in Bali.

The deal was “highly significant for agriculture, trade facilitation and support for developing countries,” he said.

The agreement “ will help provide food security for billions of people, while opening new markets for less developed countries to sell more, helping their economies grow and take greater strides in tackling poverty,“ he said.

“This clearly shows that the WTO can deliver new trade rules to bring economic opportunity and benefits to business — and ultimately jobs — in developed and developing countries alike.”

Irish Farmers’ Association president John Bryan said the deal agreed in Bali “ should have limited impact on agricultural trade issues”

Future trade talk ambitions “on eliminating market supports and trade barriers must be resisted” in order to ensure that key sectors in Irish agriculture was “not exposed to unfair competition.

The WTO reached its first ever trade reform deal today to the roar of approval from nearly 160 ministers who had gathered on the Indonesian island of Bali to decide on the make-or-break agreement that could add $1 trillion to the global economy