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France has called for an emergency meeting of European Union (EU) ministers to discuss growing concerns in Paris that Europe will concede too much ground in the Doha round of trade talks.
The move is expected to force Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, to cancel his planned trip to Washington this week. He had been considering calling off the trip to try to build support among EU member states for progress in the Doha talks.
France's concerns, backed by 12 out of the 24 other member states, revolve around maintaining the EU's farm tariffs and subsidies.
The UK, which holds the EU's presidency, was considering late last week whether to call a special meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg on October 18 at France's request.
"A meeting will be helpful. It will help clear the air. There are a lot of economic and political interests at stake," a European Commission trade official said.
Ministers from the core negotiating group of World Trade Organisation (WTO) members -- the EU, US, India, Brazil and Australia -- meet in Geneva this week to try to build on recent offers to cut farm tariffs and subsidies. Mr Mandelson's offer was judged by the US to be too modest compared with its own, particularly on cutting agricultural tariffs. Recently Pascal Lamy, the director-general of the WTO, said the US tariff-cutting proposal was roughly five times as ambitious as that of the EU.
"Everybody will have to move -- we all know that," Mr Lamy said.
On October 12 Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister, complained to British foreign secretary Jack Straw that Mr Mandelson had already gone too far in the talks.
Earlier, Dominique Bussereau, the French farm minister, gained 13 member states' signatures on a letter urging Mr Mandelson to consult with them before making concessions on agriculture.
In a speech later in London, Mr Mandelson said the talks had reached a critical point and needed to move forward.
"We are rapidly approaching the choke point where the different pieces either fall together or fall apart," he said. "The only way the round can succeed is if the result is an ambitious one."
Although Germany, the EU's largest member state, was not among the signatories to the warning letter from France, the new government, led by Angela Merkel, is likely to appoint a farm minister from the conservative CSU party, which has a strong base in rural Bavaria.
Mr Lamy said that while there was now sufficient convergence in the areas of domestic farm support and export subsidies for bargaining and trade-offs to start, the tariff negotiations required "heavy political traction" to bring the extremes closer together.
Most officials involved in the round agree that the onus remains on the EU to improve its offer at this week's meeting of ministers in Geneva.
Following last week's ministerial talks, Mr Mandelson agreed to attend more talks as early as this week as part of a strategy to keep momentum in the round going.
"We cannot afford to let the Doha round fail and we cannot afford to wait either," he said.
(Under syndication arrangement with FE)
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