Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan has reacted strongly to comments made by Peter Mandelson, the EU trade negotiator, in advance of world trade talks due to take place in Geneva over the weekend.
Mr Mandelson said that he was prepared to offer further concessions on opening up Europe's agriculture markets to imports from countries like Brazil and Argentina if other countries did the same.
The EU Trade Commissioner had stressed that the talks would not make progress if negotiators remained in entrenched positions.
The world trade negotiations have been bogged down since a ministerial summit in Hong Kong last December, at which the EU offered to cut tariffs on agricultural imports by as much as 39%. Such a cut will enable significant growth in imports of Brazilian and Argentinean beef into the EU at the expense of Irish farmers.
The US, however, is insisting that Europe should move much further and cut tariffs by a whopping 67%. A compromise proposal was tabled by the so-called G20 - a group of 20 developing countries including Brazil and India. They are looking for Europe to cut its farm tariffs by 54%.
Tensions among EU Ministers rose sharply after Mr Mandelson said this afternoon that everyone could afford to compromise and nobody could afford to let the talks fail. He said the EU was prepared to significantly improve its offer on agriculture market access and 'move towards, and close to' the tariff reductions that the G20 had asked for, if the circumstances were right.
Minister Coughlan said Ireland, France, and Austria had pointed out to Mr Mandelson at an EU General Affairs Council meeting in Geneva this morning that the EU had already gone far enough. She said the EU offer of tariff cuts of 39% was conditional on other countries' moving from their negotiating positions and improving their offers. Since then, she said, no other country had moved.
