WORLD TRADE TALKS: The Irish Farmers Association warned last night that the Government would have to be vigilant in working out the detail of the WTO framework agreement or it could have serious implications for agriculture, writes Christine Newman.
An IFA spokesman said the world trade talks were just a stage in the process.
"As there is still such a lot of detail to be decided, the Government will have to watch very carefully regarding Irish agriculture," he said.
There were references in the agreement to designated sensitive products which would be treated in some kind of preferential way. These products would qualify for refunds.
"We're going to have to make sure that Irish beef and dairy products are included in the new designated preferential products. If not, there will be serious implications for Irish agriculture," the spokesman said.
The Minister of State, Mr Tom Kitt, welcomed the framework and said the development agenda was at the heart of the current DOHA/WTO negotiations.
"My experience is that a vital precondition for any breakthrough on the negotiations must be a willingness by the developed countries to agree to measures that will bring substantial benefits to developing countries."
Mr Tom Arnold, chief executive of Concern, said he understood that the 90 developing countries seemed to be broadly comfortable with the outcome and that this was the crucial issue.
"Our concern would have been that any agreement would be with both the developed group of 21, which would be the larger middle-income group countries, and the group of 90," he said.
Potentially it was a major step forward. However, achieving better trade rules was only part of the problem as some countries' economies were still very poor, he said.
Ms Celine Charveriat, head of Oxfam International's Geneva office, said the talks moved by inches and were still miles away from reaching anything definite.
"Our main concern is that there has yet to be a time-line decided and specifics on what is reduced and by what. There is no end date for export subsidies."
The crunch would be in the time between now and the next ministerial meeting in December 2005, she said.
Mr Pat Ivory of IBEC welcomed the framework so that negotiations could continue. More products were being exported to new EU countries and to the world market so Irish products had to be cost competitive, he said.