§ Mr. David DavisTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the outcome of the Agriculture Council held in Luxembourg on 15 and 16 October.
§ Mr. Gummer[pursuant to his reply, 17 October 1990, c. 830]: I represented the United Kingdom at a meeting of the Agriculture Council on 19 October which was specially convened so that the Council could continue its discussion of the Commission's proposal for a Community offer for reducing agricultural support and protection in the current GATT round.
I continued to make clear that I could endorse the Commission proposal as a basis for taking negotiations forward. There was support for this view from a few other Ministers, but a majority pressed various objections and were unwilling to agree.
The Council again failed to reach agreement and discussion will now pass to the Foreign Affairs Council on 22 October.
I much regret the further delay in the adoption of a Community position and the absence of agreement in the Agriculture Council on such an important issue for the Uruguay round. It is a pity that the United Kingdom's support for the Community position should not have been followed by the other nations which, with Britain, agreed the basis for this negotiation under the French presidency last December.