2008
Press Release
Saturday 26th July
Progress at WTO DOHA Negotiations late Friday Night is Good news for International Trade and Irish exports;
State Irish Exporters Association
The Irish Exporters Association (today Saturday 26th July) welcome the news emerging from Geneva last night that the basis for a Package Deal had been accepted by the main negotiating group of 7 countries , India, China , Japan, Australia, Brasil, US and EU. Work on the package is scheduled to continue across the weekend with a meeting with the wider group of country ministers due to take place on Monday next.
John Whelan , chief executive of the IEA stated ;
‘’This is good news for international trade and good news for Irish exporters. It will bring benefits to a wide range of Irish exporters if ratified , including processed food producers, pharmaceutical producers, computer , IT and services producers.’’
The IEA further noted that as the key elements of the joint Agriculture and NAMA (industrial goods)package was now broadly in place , the final discussions on the Services trade liberalization package was now being tackled. However, it was clear that Fridays conclusions were not a final product and that there were still reservations on many sides concerning items which were not in the proposed agri/ industrial tariff trade – off package.
In conclusion , John Whelan , expressed the hope that the good progress of Friday night would lead to a finally accepted Doha package next week .
He stated;’’ A benefits of a successful conclusion in Geneva next week will be very significant for world trade and with it Irish export activity.’’
He concluded ;
‘’The spin off for Irish exporters will be two fold;
On the one hand we will gain from a reduction in the cost of doing business in Non -EU countries which accounted for 32.8 billion euro of merchandise trade last year , and 25.6 billion of services trade . This is estimated at 475 million per year when the full extent of the tariff and mutual technical and customs measures are implemented .
And on the other hand there is the boost to international trade which is anticipated to emerge from a successful Doha round completion . This is conservatively estimated to be of the order of 1 trillion us dollars. The net effect for Irish exports in this scenario would be a boost of 15 billion in our total exports’’
END
For Further information:
Contact, John Whelan, CEO, Irish Exporters Association @ JFWhelan@irishexporters.ie or tel: 087 9271243
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