Worst WTO fears realised

By Matt Dempsey

Masters student Ruairi McDonnell with year old Limousin X Friesian heifers at Lyons Farm UCD. The animals are being used to measure methane emissions using a calibrated tracer over a 24 hour period in the Department of Agricultural funded trial.

The formal proposals for an agricultural agreement in the WTO released this week confirm the worst fears of the IFA and industry groups.

There are proposed reductions in import tariffs of up to 73%. They would apply to beef, sheep and dairy products and would have implications for all animal production in Europe.

At this stage, a full Ministerial meeting is tentatively scheduled for late June/early July. But with the US Farm Bill now passed, the future of these WTO discussions is still unclear. There is no acknowledgement of the difficulties for the Irish and European beef industries from all the imports coming into Europe in the form of high priced cuts. While the prospect of beef being treated as a sensitive product is now taken for granted, any benefit is effectively wiped out by the increase in the amount that would be let in duty and levy free.

A surprise in the Faulkner paper is the immediacy of the proposed tariff cuts. The proposal is that one third of the tariff reduction would come in immediately on signing of the agreement, one third in one year and the balance after two years. This is far faster than expected and there is no precedent for such a rapid implementation of a trade agreement.

Meat Industry Ireland spokesman Cormac Healy said that "this front loading will have a catastrophic effect of the Irish beef sector''. He added: "The Irish government must call time on these damaging negotiations''.

Healy pointed out that the current EU beef tariff structure was fundamentally flawed because it operates on a "one size fit all'' basis. "The same import tariff applies to steak cuts valued at €20,000 a tonne, as flank cuts valued at €2,000 a tonne.

He stressed that the additional import quota of 290,00 tonnes of steak cuts should be seen in the context of the total EU production of 575,000 tonnes of steak cuts and not the total EU beef production of 8 million tonnes.

"There is no time to delay and I expect a clear message from the Taoiseach Brian Cowen stating the government's opposition to the latest WTO text, which would devastate the Irish beef industry, milk prices and the sheep sector,'' IFA President Padraig Walshe said. He added that the WTO proposals would see 700,000 tonnes of beefsteak cuts imported into Europe from Brazil. "That's 25 times the amount of Ireland's entire output and would decimate markets, driving cattle prices down to €2/kg. That price is completely unviable and would result in Ireland's beef herd of over 1 million cows being slaughtered.''

Walshe referred to the COPA European farmers union estimated losses of €30bn and their conclusion that Europe is getting nothing back.