Direct payments made to Ireland's farmers by the EU will not be under threat in a World Trade Agreement, said Mr Tim Groser, chairman of the World Trade Organisation's Agriculture Committee, in Waterford yesterday.
Mr Groser, who addressed the Agricultural Science Association's annual conference, said he had been in Dublin to meet the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, and the secretary general of the Department of Agriculture on how to proceed.
He said this was the start of a consultative process which would involve him visiting selected capitals to discuss the WTO agreement, following the negotiation of a framework agreement on agriculture. "However, this is only a framework on how to proceed. It is not an agreement as such. It is a halfway house to get us to a full agreement," he said.
Asked about the possible targeting of direct payments in a new agreement, Mr Groser said these payments which have been placed in "the green box", would not be touched for 10 years.