French Agriculture Minister Herve Gaymard said Monday that an offer by the European Union to eliminate EU agricultural export subsidies exceeded the negotiating mandate of the EU executive commission.
He was speaking following an announcement by European Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler that the EU was prepared to abolish its agriculture export subsidies if other WTO members did the same.
Fischler, appearing at a press conference on the sidelines of an EU agriculture ministers meeting here, said the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, had sent a letter to its members on Friday informing them of the proposal.
The letter was was signed by European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.
Speaking before Gaymard's remarks, Lamy insisted that the commission had acted within the limits of the mandate provided by EU governments.
He said there had been a "very large consensus on the fact that this initiative was opportune" during a meeting in Brussels on Friday of trade officials from the 25-member European Union.
The EU proposal was made in order to spur trade liberalization negotiations within the multilateral Doha round, which are taking place under the auspices of the World Trade Organization.Agence France Presse:
