IFA warns of jobs risk in world trade deal

THE IRISH Farmers' Association (IFA) has claimed that as many as 50,000 Irish jobs will be at risk if any new world trade deal is framed around the current negotiating stance of EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson.

Pádraig Walshe, IFA president, said the viability of the Irish beef industry and related sectors would come under threat if a deal was adopted that enabled South American producers to flood Europe with cheap meat.

He said the Government should declare the food industry a "vital national interest", adding that such a move would lead EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso to stop Mr Mandelson "from what he is trying to do".

Mr Walshe was addressing a press conference at which other farm groups - the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) and Macra na Feirme - and food sector representatives expressed opposition to Mr Mandelson's stance. He said the greatest threat to Irish food producers from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks came from proposed cuts to tariffs imposed on food imported into the EU: 70 per cent cuts for beef and dairy products and cuts of 55-70 per cent for lamb, pigmeat, poultry and cereals.

While the IFA will support the Lisbon Treaty, Mr Walshe said it will be very difficult to encourage farmers to vote for the pact when Mr Mandelson was "trying to sell agriculture down the swanny".

Dan Browne, former chief of Dawn Meats, said that the deal under negotiation would see 10 times the volume of steak produced in Ireland being imported into the EU. There would be no way to maintain prices in that case, Mr Browne said.

Jerry Henchy, chief of Dairygold, said the "wrong" WTO deal could irreparably shock the EU's dairy industry. ICMSA president Jackie Cahill said the Government should rely on a 1994 decision of the European Court of Justice which ruled that any WTO deal required unanimous support from EU states.