By Brian Johnson - 29th July 2008
“We did absolutely everything we could to reconcile the different views and find compromise
José Manuel Barroso
European commission president José Manuel Barroso has called the collapse of world trade talks in Geneva a “profound disappointment.”
Barroso, in a statement released after the talks broke down on Tuesday, said the failure was “a profound disappointment for the EU, for the commission, and for me.”
The global trade talks, the so-called Doha round collapsed without a deal, after nine days of gruelling negotiations.
The breakdown came after the US, India and China failed to overcome their differences on a “safeguard clause” that would allow developing countries to protect farmers from surges in imports and price fluctuations.
EU trade chief, Peter Mandelson said it was “absolutely heartbreaking” that the talks had collapsed over such a relatively minor issue as farm-import rules.
Barroso paid tribute to both Mandelson and EU agriculture chief Mariann Fischer Boel for the work they had put in to the talks.
“We worked for a fair and balanced deal that would have created a win-win situation for all sides. Such a deal would have given the world economy a much welcome boost.”
“We did absolutely everything we could to reconcile the different views and find compromise. The present failure does not remove the case for progress, most obviously for the benefit of developing countries.”
However, the breakdown in talks was greeted with relief by the Irish agricultural industry, with the Irish independent reporting Irish Framers Association (IFA) president Padraig Walshe as saying that farmers would be relieved and thankful to French president Nicolas Sarkozy “for the way he stood up for European farming.”
Concerns by the Irish farming community over the EU’s intentions at the talks were so strong that the IFA initially advised its members to vote against the Lisbon treaty in the recent Irish referendum.
The Irish examiner on Wednesday reported that the Irish farm lobby believed that a bad deal at the WTO talks would have forced 50,000 livestock producers out of business, cost Dublin €4bn a year and resulted in 50,000 agricultural job losses.
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