By Peggy Corlin - 27th June 2006
France has warned Brussels not to offer any further concessions on agriculture, ahead of crunch WTO talks in Geneva.
Paris’ Agriculture minister, Dominique Bussereau is insisting that EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson must not give in on agriculture and blindly accept any US offers when talks begin on Thursday.
“The EU must be careful with any new US offer on agriculture that may only be cosmetic,” Bussereau told French daily Les Echos on Wednesday.
“The US has adopted more open language but the reality may be different with elections this autumn in the US and the weight of agriculture in the US Congress”.
“There are blatant signs that more than half of US senators are opposed to the liberalisation of agriculture,” said Bussereau.
France has lobbied hard since the beginning of negotiations to protect subsidies to European farmers.
But in Hong Kong last December the EU agreed to scrap EU farm export subsidies by 2013.
“We have offered generous proposals, there is no more room for manoeuvre,” argued Bussereau.
“Since the very beginning, agriculture has dominated the negotiations, but nothing has moved on our partners’ side, either the Americans with agriculture or the emerging countries with industry and services”.
Bussereau made it clear that the EU must not consider a deal where the interests of Europe’s farmers would be sacrificed, no matter what pressure there is to end the Doha trade round.
“We prefer no agreement rather than a one way agreement. We must defend our interests,” said Bussereau.
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