As ministers from 50 countries arrived in Geneva last night to advance the World Trade Organisation talks, its chief, Pascal Lamy, said a deal must come soon on farm and industrial goods or the negotiations could fail.
Farm ministers, including Ireland's Mary Coughlan, are under pressure to approve cuts to farm subsidies and cut import tariffs to find a deal.
"In any negotiation, there is a moment when things become too late. The moment we need ministers to crack the nut is now, not later," Mr Lamy told a news conference. "I don't think we can postpone any longer. If we were to do that, we would put the project at risk. The time is now . . . Postponing a decision on cuts in subsidies and tariffs is a recipe for failure," he said.
Fears that France, the most stern opponent of giving any more concessions on agriculture to facilitate a deal in manufacturing, was weakening its stance has caused alarm in Ireland.
Ms Coughlan was warned again by Meat Industry Ireland that there needed to be a tough stand taken in defence of the Irish and EU agri-food sector at the negotiations.
"The EU is the largest importer of food and agricultural products in the world and the current EU offer on market access has already conceded too much on import tariff reductions," said an MII statement.
"Tough pragmatic negotiation on agriculture does not mean disadvantages for Ireland in other elements of the WTO.
"There is nothing in the offer on non-agricultural market access or in services that would be jeopardised by the EU sticking to its negotiating mandate on agriculture," it said.
The president of the Irish Farmers Association, Pádraig Walshe, said he was extremely concerned at the determination of European negotiators to push for a deal that would open up the European beef market to to what he said would be almost unlimited imports from Brazil. He said the IFA had written to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern urging him to use all his influence through every possible channel to resist what he called the sell-out of European farm families.
"IFA's assessment is that the full impact of the EU offer already on the table would be a reduction of about €1.2 billion, or 27 per cent, in the value of agricultural output, and a reduction of €800 million, or 36 per cent, in national farm income," he said.
The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society and the Irish Dairy Industries Association said in a joint statement that the EU must not exceed the negotiating mandate that was set out in the Council declarations and the Luxembourg Agreement.
The head of the US's biggest farm group poured cold water on a pitch by Mr Lamy for resolving the talks, saying it would leave US producers out of pocket. "Lamy's statement about the G20 market access proposal and what the US needs to do on domestic supports do not match economically for the US," said Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. - (additional reporting, Reuters)
