Effects of farm subsidies

Madam, - The efforts of the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Fisheries to break the deadlock on world trade negotiations should…

Madam, - The efforts of the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Fisheries to break the deadlock on world trade negotiations should be applauded (The Irish Times, May 11th). However, I felt that Sean Mac Connell missed an opportunity to highlight in his report the misery that developed countries' agricultural subsidies are causing in the Third World.

The concerns of Irish farmers over their abolition should be put in the context of the millions of people around the world who are unable to make a decent living due to the deflationary effect that subsidies have on prices. If the public in developed countries were better informed of the effects of these subsidies, there would surely be an outcry that would put the vastly over-powerful agricultural lobby in its place. - Yours, etc.,

STEPHEN GILL, Glenageary, Co Dublin.