THE EUROPEAN beef sector will not survive the 70 per cent cut in tariffs proposed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan has said.
The current world trade agreement talks represented a "serious threat to EU and Irish agriculture" she said and in an effort to conclude talks before the US presidential elections there would be a temptation to agree concessions that would be "severely damaging to farming and the food industry in the country and through Europe".
Ms Coughlan was speaking at a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels yesterday.
She said that her concerns in relation to the future of the beef and dairy industry had not been eased by the EU Commission which has accepted the major increase in imports proposed by the WTO.
"The European beef sector could not possibly survive the 70 per cent tariff cut which is on the table in Geneva."
Fianna Fáil MEP Seán Ó Neachtain has also described the beef tariff cuts as "unacceptable". Mr Ó Neachtain, who is the only Irish member of the European Parliament to be sitting on the parliament's steering committee on the world trade talks, warned of a number of stumbling blocks to such an agreement.
"No deal on agriculture can be agreed by the 150 countries who are members of the WTO unless a WTO deal on industrial products known as NAMA [ non agricultural market access] can be agreed," he said.
A balanced and fair agreement was essential but the EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson was seeking too large a cut in tariffs for beef imports, Mr Ó Neachtain said.
He said Ireland was not on its own in this belief as the French minister for agriculture recently sided with Ireland on the issue.
"Twenty different EU agricultural ministers spoke out against a WTO deal on agriculture on the basis of what was on the table for discussion at the WTO talks in Geneva when these ministers last met to discuss the Doha round of negotiations," he said.
He outlined difficulties other than those in dairy and beef products and said these included agreeing tariff levels for imports of fruit and vegetables into the EU.