Following a series of optimistic meetings with US and Japanese leaders last week (EurActiv 09/01/07), French officials have thrown a wet blanket on Trade Commissioner Mandelson's plans to breathe new life into the Doha Round of negotiations.
French Agriculture Minister Domique Bussereau "firmly reminded" Mandelson that the limits of the Commission's negotiating mandate had already been reached with its October 2005 offer to cut farm tariffs by 39%, in a statement on 12 January. Mandelson had however already made clear back in July, before the talks were suspended, that he would be ready to go further than this, floating a figure of 51%.
But Foreign Affairs Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy repeated that the 39% offer was a "red line", despite the fact that this hardline position was one of the causes for the breakdown in global talks, with the US demanding a 66% cut and developing countries asking for a 54% reduction.
Mandelson reacted on 15 January, telling French newspaper Les Echos: "France's position is hard, needlessly defensive."
The EU trade chief also called on France to ensure that global trade reform did not become a "political football" ahead of April's presidential election. This would certainly complicate matters, as there is widespread consensus that if a deal is not reached in the next two to three months, a pact would be delayed until 2009.
Separately, business groups from Europe, the US, Japan, India, China, Brazil, South Korea, Australia and Canada united on 15 January to urge WTO members to return to the negotiating table immediately. They said that failure to secure a deal would have far-reaching effects, including "increased regionalism and protectionism, shocks in financial markets” and a loss of legitimacy for the multilateral rules-based system.
