Exporters warn against WTO sacrifice to protect farmers

THE IRISH Exporters' Association (IEA) has warned the Government not to sacrifice the wider interests of the Irish economy in order to protect farmers in global trade talks.

IEA chief executive John Whelan said yesterday a World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal would greatly improve access for Irish goods and services to overseas markets.

He said Taoiseach Brian Cowen had to weigh up carefully the fact that 97 per cent of current Irish exports were from the industrial and services sectors before wielding a veto to protect Irish agriculture. "The justification for excluding agricultural products from trade liberalisation cannot be sustained in the long term, if we are to continue to expect market access for all our industrial goods and services in these same countries," said Mr Whelan, in comments made as ministers from 35 countries began critical WTO talks in Geneva yesterday.

The talks aim to liberalise world trade in agriculture, industrial products and services by cutting tariffs and trade-distorting subsidies. They have been dragging on for seven years and major differences over the package remain between developed economies - the US, EU, Japan and Australia - and developing countries such as Brazil, China and India.

The Government has promised to defend the interests of Irish beef and dairy farmers at this week's talks and has even threatened to veto a bad deal. It has sent Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, Minister for Trade John McGuinness and Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith to monitor the talks.

Irish farm organisations have warned that EU proposals to reduce the tariffs levied on Brazilian beef imported into the union could cost 100,000 jobs.

The draft proposal would see import tariffs cut by 23 per cent and a certain quota of non-EU beef, probably 290,000-450,000 tonnes, accepted into the EU market at low tariffs.

But in a statement, the IEA highlighted that the value of Irish exports in industrial goods (€83 billion) and services (€65 billion) far outweighed the value of agricultural exports (€5 billion) and exports of forestry and fishing products (€455 million).

"In these difficult economic times, there is strong expectation amongst Irish exporters that the WTO Doha deal, if concluded this week, will greatly improve access for Irish goods and services abroad," said Mr Whelan.

The talks are expected to continue all week.