‘EU must deliver on market access’

The EU must offer substantial new market access in agriculture, leaving no product sector untouched, but the United States will also have to re-shape its own domestic farm support programme.

That’s what EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told the National Press Club in Washington in an address on the world trade talks, which will reach a crucial point at a December meeting in Hong Kong.

Mr Mandelston said industrialised nations will use the big agricultural content of the negotiations both to bind and stimulate current or future reforms of their farm sectors.