EU trade commissioner hits back at Sarkozy
ELITSA VUCHEVA
02.07.2008 @ 09:24 CET
EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson has fired back at criticism by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, arguing that Mr Sarkozy's statements were "undermining" the EU's position in world trade talks.
"I am being undermined and Europe's negotiating position in the world trade talks is being weakened and I regret that," Mr Mandelson told the BBC's Newsnight programme on Tuesday (1 July).
The trade commissioner is "mystified" by Mr Sarkozy's criticism (Photo: wikipedia)
"It is very disappointing because the mandate under which I am negotiating in the world trade talks - and trying on Europe's behalf to bring them to a successful conclusion - has been agreed by all the member states," he added.
Speaking on French national television on Monday on the eve of the launch of the French EU presidency France's president again accused the British commissioner of offering too many concessions during the talks.
"[WTO chief] Mr Lamy and Mr Mandelson want to make us accept a deal under which Europe would commit to cutting farm output by 20 percent and reduce farm exports by 10 percent," Mr Sarkozy told national television channel France 3 on Monday.
"That would be 100,000 jobs lost, I won't let it happen," he added.
The current round of talks on trade liberalisation the Doha round was launched in 2001, but has long failed to progress, as all sides have been refusing to make significant compromises.
On Monday, France stressed once again it would veto any deal sacrificing agricultural production on the "altar of global liberalism".
Paris has also long defended the EU's farm spending known as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) - as well as its own subsidies for farmers, and opposed any reforms that it sees as too liberalising and potentially destructive.
France has set the CAP and its review or "health check" as one of its EU presidency priorities.
For his part, Mr Mandelson expressed "regret that Mr Sarkozy's intervention last night will make it harder for me."
Earlier in the day, his spokesperson in Brussels defended the commissioner's actions and challenged Mr Sarkozy's figures, saying the decrease in farm production and the job losses would be much smaller than what he had presented.
The French president has made a number of similar attacks against the EU's trade chief, and in June he suggested that he had played a part in the negative outcome of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon treaty an accusation that "mystified" Mr Mandelson.