Views on the CAP mid-term review proposals
According to reports in the Wall Street Journal the proposals contained in the mid-term review would benefit the world economy, especially poor farmers in the developing world who can not compete with subsidised farmers in rich countries. According to Duncan Green, a policy advisor, with the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development 'It should lead to less dumping of artificially cheap products on third-world markets'. This contrasts with the likely impact of the US Farm Bill, which through increased price support encourages production regardless of world demand. Internally the Commission proposals are caught between member states which fear an accelerated process of reform and those which want to see budgetary savings before enlargement in 2004. The French prime minister in particular has come out firmly against the mid-term review proposals, while the German agriculture minister, Renate Kuenast, has welcomed the proposals, provided that jobs and the environment can be protected. The German opposition leader Edmund Stoiber, however, has declared his opposition to the mid-term review proposals. At the time of the presentation of the reform proposals several hundred Spanish farmers protested in Brussels, claiming that they amounted to a serious attack on Spanish farming interests. French farmers meanwhile claimed that the proposals would decimate their industry, arguing that a 3% reduction in direct aid payments would mean that 200,000 farmers (almost half of French farmers) would leave the industry within 10 years. Socialist, Liberal and Green spokespersons in the European Parliament, however, broadly backed the proposals while the conservatives only expressed limited objections. Commissioner Fischler was not particularly concerned with the opposition expressed, indicating that this was simply the beginning of the negotiating process which would be a necessary part of moving reform forward. Outside of the EU, speaking in Geneva on July 15th 2002, the US deputy trade representative, Peter Allgeier, called the mid-term review proposals a 'step in the right direction'. Comment: A key determinant of the progress of the Commission's reform proposals is the outcome of the German elections. A victory for the opposition CDU/CSU would have created a Franco-German axis opposed to the proposals for reform, but the SPD victory requires France to reach some accommodation with the pro-reform group in the Council. Estimates of the likely employment implications of the reform proposals need to be carefully assessed in the context of the assumptions made and the factors which have been taken into account in making the calculations.
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Format: | News Item biblioteca |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
2002
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/52675 http://agritrade.cta.int/Back-issues/Agriculture-monthly-news-update/2002/October-2002 |
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Summary: | According to reports in the Wall Street
Journal the proposals contained in the mid-term review would benefit
the world economy, especially poor farmers in the developing world
who can not compete with subsidised farmers in rich countries. According
to Duncan Green, a policy advisor, with the Catholic Agency for
Overseas Development 'It should lead to less dumping of artificially
cheap products on third-world markets'. This contrasts with the
likely impact of the US Farm Bill, which through increased price
support encourages production regardless of world demand.
Internally the Commission proposals are caught between member states
which fear an accelerated process of reform and those which want
to see budgetary savings before enlargement in 2004.
The French prime minister in particular has come out firmly against
the mid-term review proposals, while the German agriculture minister,
Renate Kuenast, has welcomed the proposals, provided that jobs and
the environment can be protected. The German opposition leader Edmund
Stoiber, however, has declared his opposition to the mid-term review
proposals.
At the time of the presentation of the reform proposals several
hundred Spanish farmers protested in Brussels, claiming that they
amounted to a serious attack on Spanish farming interests. French
farmers meanwhile claimed that the proposals would decimate their
industry, arguing that a 3% reduction in direct aid payments would
mean that 200,000 farmers (almost half of French farmers) would
leave the industry within 10 years.
Socialist, Liberal and Green spokespersons in the European Parliament,
however, broadly backed the proposals while the conservatives only
expressed limited objections. Commissioner Fischler was not particularly
concerned with the opposition expressed, indicating that this was
simply the beginning of the negotiating process which would be a
necessary part of moving reform forward.
Outside of the EU, speaking in Geneva on July 15th 2002, the US
deputy trade representative, Peter Allgeier, called the mid-term
review proposals a 'step in the right direction'.
Comment:
A key determinant of the progress of the Commission's reform proposals
is the outcome of the German elections. A victory for the opposition
CDU/CSU would have created a Franco-German axis opposed to the proposals
for reform, but the SPD victory requires France to reach some accommodation
with the pro-reform group in the Council.
Estimates of the likely employment implications of the reform proposals
need to be carefully assessed in the context of the assumptions
made and the factors which have been taken into account in making
the calculations. |
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