THE Irish farm and food industries are in danger of facing a "double whammy" if negotiations over the future of the Common Agriculture Policy are not handled with great care, the Minister for Agriculture warned yesterday.
Mr Yates said the country would be asked first to accept further World Trade Organisation linked reform. Then there would have to be internal changes in the CAP to accommodate the enlargement of up to 12 new member states.
Mr Yates warned that unless the first round of negotiations " factored in" the second reform package, Irish farmers could be asked to pay twice.
The Minister, who was addressing an Ireland Belgium Business Association lunch, warned that further CAP reform was inevitable because of continued trade liberalisation and EU enlargement.
The challenge was to work in a proactive way to safeguard Irish interests at the same time as improving competitiveness. That would mean making a case for lengthy transition periods for full integration of eastern European countries' agricultural sectors into the EU, Mr Yates argued. Because their input prices were a tenth of those in the EU, it was necessary to make a special case for the farm sector. This had been the case for Spain and Portugal in fishing.
Ireland would also regard the common financing of the farm sector as an "abiding bedrock principle". He had no doubt, he said, that Germany and France could afford to fund farming from their national budgets but that would be impossible for Objective countries (the poorer EU states).
Mr Yates said the priorities of the Irish EU presidency in the agricultural sphere would be to advance work in the unreformed sectors of wine, olive oil and tobacco. As Ireland does not have direct interests in these areas, he hoped we would be seen as "honest brokers" and create good will.
