Oct 8th 2008 - Doha Round, WTO Trade Talks Collapse

Delivered by Derek Clark on 20 October 2008

Tags: ,

Speech to Parliament Brussels Oct 8th 2008 Debate; Doha Round, WTO Trade Talks Collapse The EU likes to throw its weight around when it comes to trade.

Remember the six year long "banana war" with the US, after the EU gave special market access to its former colonies in the Caribbean? The Director-general of the WTO is former Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy. Is there not a conflict of interests? After all, his EU pension might depend on him not attacking EU policies.

Could that have been a factor in his mind as he attempted to negotiate between trading blocs? Peter Mandelson blamed the collapse of the Doha round on US Agricultural subsidies. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. For decades the Common Agricultural Policy has been stuffing the pockets of EU farmers with enormous subsidies.

This had as much to do, one would think, with the collapse of the trade talks and anyway, the last thing the EU should be doing is scoring points against other regions in trade talks, at a time of global hunger and financial crisis. Footnote, The Commissioner for Trade should have been there but Peter Mandelson had already departed so Mariane Fisher Boel stood in having, as she put it, "drawn the short straw".

Derek Clark MEP Brussels Oct 8th 2008