White knight

All in SW

Here he goes again, upsetting the French on, of all things, agriculture! He just can't win that one, so yet another humiliating climbdown for Mandlebum coming soon?

Hoped you saw him and Alastair Campbell judging Celebrity Come Dancing last night on "Bremner & Bird" ? Hilarious, especially when Blair moaned: "Oh! Alastair, I've missed you"!!

John Kelly


THE TIMES 17/10/05
Business

French anger at Mandelson
From Jane Macartney in Beijing

FRANCE raised the tempo in its attacks on Peter Mandelson, condemning his
proposed reduction in EU farm subsidies as ³shocking².

Far from mollified by statements by the European Trade Commissioner that he
had not exceeded his brief in the Doha round of talks, France lashed out
again at the G20 talks in Beijing at the weekend.

Thierry Breton, the French Finance Minister, demanded that Mr Mandelson show
he had not jeopardised already agreed EU farm policy. ³It is shocking that a
Commissioner makes proposals in such a crucial negotiation without seeking
the approval of the council (of EU ministers), he said.

The EU has so far offered a 70 per cent reduction in trade-distorting farm
subsidies, largely in line with a reform already agreed by member states. Mr
Mandelson is also thought to have offered trading partners undisclosed cuts
in tariffs for the first time.

³There is a red line we won't cross, M Breton said in some of France¹s
bitterest remarks yet. He said the EU's Common Agricultural Policy had been
reformed in 2003 and France had no intention of going farther. The internal
EU row will come to a head tomorrow in Luxembourg when Europe¹s foreign and
trade ministers meet in an attempt to resolve the conflict.

The issue is crucial to the future of World Trade Organisation talks on
demolishing barriers to global commerce. Without a farm deal, developing
economies such as Brazil could refuse to open their markets in industrial
goods and services