BRUSSELS, 15 October 2005 — EU foreign ministers are to hold emergency talks next week in a bid to bridge internal differences threatening to complicate WTO trade negotiations that are already foundering less than two months ahead of a crucial ministerial conference.
EU officials said the talks on Tuesday would also broach growing fears about the spread of bird flu into Europe after a deadly strain was confirmed in Turkey and suspected in Romania.
But the primary focus of the extraordinary meeting in Luxembourg will be ongoing World Trade Organization efforts to hammer out a global accord on reducing trade barriers.
The talks come amid mounting French anger about concessions the European Commission has made in negotiations on farm subsidies ahead of a key WTO meeting in Hong Kong in December.
That gathering has been called to approve the broad outlines of global trade liberalization deal that was called for by WTO ministers in Doha, Qatar in late 2001.
EU trade chief Peter Mandelson has sought to defend himself by insisting that the commission has not overstepped its mandate to negotiate on behalf of member states.
“I support the calling of this meeting as a welcome opportunity to continue to provide transparency to the member states and to reassure them that the conduct of the negotiations by the (European) Commission is within the mandate,” Mandelson said in a statement.
The WTO’s general council due to meet in Geneva on Wednesday and Thursday in the presence of ministers from certain WTO members.
France, one of the biggest beneficiaries of EU farm subsidies, has been taken aback by an offer made by Mandelson — a former British minister close to Prime Minister Tony Blair — at talks at the WTO’s Geneva headquarters this week to slash EU farm aid and tariffs.
Paris contends that Mandelson overstepped his brief in making the offer, which it believes violates a memorandum signed by EU states requiring consultations before any significant concessions on the issue.
Mandelson said he looked forward to the Luxembourg meeting “to answer any questions member states may have”.
French President Jacques Chirac, who has made defending France’s generous farm subsidies a hallmark of his political career, sent a “personal” letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to lobby Paris’ view in Brussels.
“What the president of the republic is asking is that the negotiations take place in transparency and in close negotiation with the commission and member states,” his office said Thursday.
French ire stems from a proposal Mandelson has made in the WTO negotiations to cut EU farm subsidies by 70 percent, plus a cut of up 60 percent in EU customs duties on farm goods.
Mandelson had to put his chips on the bargaining table after Washington also proposed making deep cuts in its subsidies.
An accord on cutting farm aid is broadly considered to be pivotal for an overall deal at the Hong Kong meeting.
