Sarkozy vows to defend European agricultural production
Posted by Truth About Trade & Technology
Thursday, 03 July 2008
Financial Times
By John Thornhill in Paris
Original Publish Date: July 1, 2008
Europe's agricultural production will not be sacrificed on the "altar of global liberalism", Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, vowed last night, threatening to block any deal at the World Trade Organisation that jeopardised the region's farming industry.
Mr Sarkozy said he would not accept the loss of 100,000 jobs that would result from a trade deal being backed by Peter Mandelson, the European Union's trade commissioner, and Pascal Lamy, the WTO's secretary-general. According to Mr Sarkozy, this outline deal would cut the EU's agricultural production by 20 per cent and its exports by 10 per cent.
"In a world where there are 800m poor people who cannot satisfy their hunger and where a kid dies every 30 seconds from hunger, I will never accept a reduction in agricultural production on the altar of global liberalism," Mr Sarkozy said in a television interview on the eve of France assuming the EU's rotating presidency.
Mr Sarkozy's stark warning on EU trade policy will further complicate Mr Lamy's ambitions of concluding an outline deal to the Doha round of trade talks by the year end. Mr Lamy has been trying to revive the stalled trade talks by inviting a select group of ministers to meet on July 21.
The French president said that the EU must profoundly change its way of thinking to reassure its citizens rat-her than frighten them. The EU could play a vital role in protecting its citizens from the risks of globalisation and delivering real benefits in their daily lives. "We should not fear the word protection, we have need of Europe," he said. "There are some subjects that we can only solve at the European level."
Last month, Mr Sarkozy lashed out at Mr Mandelson for not doing enough to defend Europe's interests in global trade talks. He also suggested that the EU's trade commissioner had contributed to the anxieties that caused Irish voters to reject the EU's Lisbon reform treaty in their referendum.
Mr Sarkozy said the EU must insist on "reciprocity" in its dealings with developing countries, which, he suggested, were not doing enough to lower their own tariff barriers for industry and services.
"I believe in Europe. I am profoundly European. I refuse protectionism but I have had enough of naivety and I want reciprocity," Mr Sarkozy said. "Europe must fight with equal arms."
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Sarkozy said that he would also continue his campaign to suspend value added tax on petrol above a certain unspecified level to help struggling motorists. Angry hauliers, protesting against high fuel prices, brought many of France's motorways to a near-halt yesterday as part of their Operation Escargot. But some other EU countries insist tampering with VAT rates is not the way to deal with surging petrol prices.
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