The European Union should accept faster and deeper cuts in agricultural subsidies in a bid to secure a world trade talks deal, Australian prime minister John Howard said yesterday.
In an address to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Mr Howard said the United States' offer to cut its own farm subsidies is "a lot more generous and adventurous" than is realised in the EU.
The EU and Japan's "very restrictive approach" in the negotiations could provoke the US Congress to pull the White House's authority to agree a deal on its own - a mandate that runs out in mid-2007.
"It could be a few years before another Congress is willing to give an administration the mandate to get a deal," said Mr Howard, who is a close ally of US president George Bush.
The Australian premier, who will address a joint session of the Houses of the Oireachtas today, later discussed the trade talks, Iraq and other issues with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
During a joint press conference, Mr Ahern said Ireland, as one of the world's most export-dependent countries, wanted a successful trade deal but that it had already "made major concessions on two occasions".
The EU last year agreed to eliminate all agricultural export subsidies by 2013, though this is conditional on the US and other trade blocs ending their subsidies completely.
"We have made serious moves on all of these fronts," said the Taoiseach, who added that Ireland is the only European Union state forced to close its sugar industry completely because of pressures caused by changing world-trade rules.
On Iraq, Mr Ahern said Ireland "had assisted in whatever way we could" once the United Nations had passed a second resolution approving the presence of the US-led forces in Iraq.
"All of us want to see a better Iraq. In our own way we have assisted in whatever way we could. We have facilitated Shannon all the way through, as you know.
"Everyone doesn't agree with that, but once there was a clear UN resolution that was our position."
Mr Howard said that Australian soldiers would "stay the course" in Iraq. "I have steadfastly refused to commit myself to a timetable [for withdrawal]. Those who demand on an almost daily basis that I provide a timetable have the luxury of a total lack of responsibility for the issue."
Independent TD Finian McGrath is to boycott Mr Howard's Oireachtas address, while other Independents and Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins will publicly dissociate themselves from the official welcome offered to him.
"I simply cannot just sit there and listen to someone who is blatantly supporting the war in Iraq. He has become a cheerleader for Bush and I want to represent 120,000 Irish citizens who protested against the war in Iraq," said Mr McGrath.
"I'm sure that the Taoiseach would share all of my abhorrence with terrorism. Irish people have suffered as part of the world community.
"There were Irish people in the World Trade Center in New York. There were Irish people in Bali," he said.
