Things are not looking good for the Doha trade round. Alan Beattie and Victor Mallet report in today's Financial Times that Europe is under pressure on farm tariff cuts in Hong Kong:
The European Union is under pressure to improve its offer on farm tariff cuts within 10 days, or risk the cancellation of December's Hong Kong trade summit, according to trade officials. Officials in Europe say that Pascal Lamy, WTO director-general, has warned them there is no point going ahead with the meeting in December without a more ambitious proposal.
..."A clear and rising degree of concern has been expressed to us," said one European Commission official. The official confirmed that Mr Lamy had suggested that the next week to 10 days was the make-or-break point for the Doha round of talks. The WTO declined to comment.
According to Thomas Fuller at the International Herald Tribune, you can mostly blame EU recalcitrance on France, and the power of 'terroir' (hat tip: Daniel Drezner):
So what is behind France's resistance? Soudé says France is opposed to any measure that could jeopardize the Common Agricultural Policy, the European system of subsidies and regulations. "France always had a special link to agriculture and to the terroir," he said. "We have a relationship with food that is not the same in other European Union countries. We have a culture of good eating, which we treasure."
Of course - its all about protecting their national culture. Or maybe not..
There is also the obvious fact that France receives almost 10 billion, or $12 billion, in agricultural subsidies from Brussels every year, by far the largest share of the 53 billion program. "French farmers are the ones who benefit the most from the Common Agricultural policy, and they also have the most to lose," said Johan Swinnen, a specialist in agriculture at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.
For an excellent account of where the trade talks have got to, see Ben Muse's post Doha: the desperate hours. Ben is the must read on trade issues, along with Aussie trade analyst Peter Gallagher.
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