Mr Peter Mandelson, European Union trade commissioner, warned yesterday that a lack of political leadership by Europe's trading partners was threatening the success of the current Doha world trade round talks.
On the eve of his first official visit to the US since becoming the EU's top trade negotiator, Mr Mandelson said members of the World Trade Organisation needed to "get their act together" and decide what they could bring to negotiations.
He said the EU had "shown a strong commitment [ to the round] and arguably more commitment than anyone else", but that other countries should not count on Europe "being the sole banker in the round".
Mr Mandelson also said he would work hard with his US counterparts to resolve the transatlantic trade dispute over subsidies to aircraft makers Boeing and Airbus, because "it is not fair for the companies concerned to have to continue indefinitely with uncertainty about the future".
But he said he had "no illusions" about the difficulty of reaching an agreement.
"First we have to reach a common definition of subsidies and, having identified them and having agreed what things are allowable and not allowable, you then have to reach an outcome that offers fair competition between Boeing and Airbus. And that is hard."
Nevertheless, the commissioner said transatlantic relations had improved substantially since the fallout over the war in Iraq.
"There is a much stronger desire to resolve our differences and a greater acceptance that the challenges that confront us have to be tackled on the basis of shared analysis, common outlook and agreed action."
This new approach "will be tested, for example, on Iran and Chinese arms sales", Mr Mandelson said, though he voiced confidence that there would be no repeat of the past acrimony.
"People have stared into the abyss of a transatlantic gulf and realise how little that serves their interest."
He would use his meetings with US lawmakers to press for a fresh "sense of urgency" with regard to the Doha trade round, which only narrowly avoided breakdown last year. - Financial Times Service
