asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the Government's position in relation to the present GATT talks on agriculture tariffs and price supports.
Written Answers. - GATT Talks.
77.
These negotiations cover trade relations in all sectors, including agriculture. A number of contracting parties to the GATT have been pressing in the negotiations for full liberalisation of agricultural trade including the abolition of all trade related subsidies. The Community's position has been firmly opposed to that view and while willing to participate in measures leading, on a mutually advantageous basis, to greater freedom of trade it has made it clear that the fundamental principles of the CAP are not negotiable.
I can accept the broad thrust of the Community's approach in the negotiations to date. My principal aims are to ensure that the Community's actions in recent years are matched by equivalent actions by other trading countries, that the eventual agreement recognises the special characteristics of European farming and that the Community can continue to support the farming community and rural areas generally. For that reason, I strongly oppose full liberalisation of trade which would have very adverse consequences for European producers and for the Irish economy.
At my request and that of my French colleague, the Council of Agriculture Ministers discussed this whole issue on 14-15 November. It generally agreed on an approach clearly in line with these views and recommended that the Community's position at the special Ministerial Mid-Term Review in Montreal from 5 December should be drawn up on that basis.