Sugar unresolved

So Joe Walsh bows out as Europe's longest serving Minister for Agriculture. He has, as has Mr Fischler, left two major pieces of unfinished business - the whole sugar regime and the deals with the South American Mercusor countries, which mostly involve beef, but also ironically sugar.

At a recent meeting of the IFA's beet section the brutal truth was spelled out for the 2005 campaign - a proposal that the sugar price be cut by 10% and the quota by 16% is likely to be put forward. In one of his final statements as Minister, Joe Walsh said that if the current proposal goes through it will essentially end the Irish sugar beet industry. We would agree with that assessment. Sugar in the Irish content is uniquely vulnerable. By combining the A, B and C quotas into a composite price the French industry have effectively laid the way open for the WTO to confirm their ruling that the current regime contravenes international trade rules.

The EU, and especially the Irish sugar industry, is on a knife edge. Joe Walsh is right in his assessment but what we need is a solution. It is ironic that in dairying, where we are competitive, we have a national quota, but in beet, where we are not, there is a proposal that we have cross-border trade in quotas. This anomaly should be tackled - before we start to tackle the larger picture. This will be one of the first tasks facing the new Minister.