SEANAD REPORT:A DIFFERENCE of opinion emerged on the Government's side as to whether Ireland has a veto in relation to the current World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks. Minister of State for Agriculture Tony Killeen said the clear view of the EU Council's legal services unit was that unanimity was required for the EU to agree to the WTO proposals in this particular instance.
But the leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ciarán Cannon, said there was a need for the Government to confirm that Ireland currently had a veto in the talks and that, more importantly, it would be retained after the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. There was also a need to confirm, once and for all, that we would use a veto if the final trade negotiations threatened our farming sector, said Mr Cannon. The commitment needed to be given quite soon. It was time to reassure our farmers that our veto remained intact and that we would use it if our unique way of life in rural Ireland was being threatened to the point of extinction.
Several Opposition members also called for a clear indication of a willingness to use the veto if this became necessary.
Mr Killeen responded that there was no clarity as yet regarding either the eventual outcome of the talks or the timing of any deal. "In those circumstances it is, in my view, premature and indeed defeatist to speak in terms of a veto at this point." Currently close to 20 EU member states shared Ireland's concerns on the basis of the food security element. As this issue came more and more to the forefront, he believed that our position would be essential to the reaching of any agreement.
Opening the debate on the WTO agriculture negotiations, the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith said he and the Government had serious concerns about the current direction of the talks. There was a clear overemphasis on the agricultural negotiations. The director general of the WTO was pushing extremely hard to reach an agreement by the end of this year. Only this week, a WTO negotiating committee had issued new papers that would be used to progress the negotiations with a view to reaching agreement in these areas at a ministerial meeting before the end of June.
"While full details of these papers are still under consideration, I have to report our preliminary view that they do not address all of the concerns which Ireland has identified in the negotiations."