The Minister for Trade, Mr Tom Kitt, said yesterday he regretted the World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Seattle had failed to agree on an agenda for a new round of trade negotiations, but that "no deal was better than a bad deal".
Mr Kitt pointed out that a new trade round would suit the Republic as an export-orientated economy but said some aspects of the proposed package were clearly unacceptable, especially in agriculture. He insisted that the texts on the table at Seattle would have "no status" in any efforts to re-start the negotiations next year.
The summit broke up on Saturday morning after the US Special Trade Representative, Ms Charlene Barshefsky, and the WTO Director General, Mr Mike Moore, acknowledged there was no agreement on an agenda for the new trade round. Officials at WTO headquarters in Geneva will resume work next year on trying to launch a new round of trade liberalisation.
The President of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr Tom Parlon, said the US and Cairns Group plans for agriculture constituted an "attack on the European family farm structure" and must continue to be resisted.
"There is no room for complacency and ambivalence on the part of the Government as the threat to our system of food production and environmental standards had not gone away," he said.
European business leaders and politicians have deplored the breakdown of the talks with many criticising the US for poor organisation and calling for a fresh approach to global commerce.
The high-profile street protests that came before the failure of the talks were minimised, and observers have since highlighted the price to be paid by developing countries who will find it hard to export farm products to Europe, Japan, and North America.
Many leaders, including the French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, said it was better to have a failure than a bad accord.
Germany's industry federation, the BDI, blamed the US which a spokesman said agreed only to a "very slight opening" of markets.
Although the failure was "disappointing", the spokesman said the BDI felt "not getting a result was better than a bad result". The president of another German industrial federation, the BGA, called for a rapid resumption of negotiations.
Mr Michel Fuchs said the WTO conference in Seattle was a "serious setback" and that an export-oriented country like Germany "urgently needed" to see trade barriers dismantled.
He predicted that new talks would take "lots of time and energy", and urged that social standards be left aside.
The German Economy Minister Mr Werner Mueller noted that among those who will suffer most were the developing countries.
Mr Jospin called for strong control on world trade, "otherwise it will only be regulated between the powers".
