BRUSSELS, Oct 28: The European Commission offered on Friday its steepest-ever cut in agricultural tariffs in an effort to break a deadlock in world trade talks, but also signalled that France might object.

The EU’s executive said in a statement that it was proposing a cut of 60 per cent in the EU’s highest tariffs and a range of cuts of between 35 per cent and 60 per cent for lower tariffs.

The commission is trying to live up to the expectations of its negotiating partners, but the overall offer risks putting it on a collision course with France, which is a major beneficiary of farm subsidies.

Anticipating that conflict, the commission also noted that the offer was at the upper limit of its its mandate, but remained within it.

France regards agriculture as a matter of vital national interest and has threatened to use its veto if the proposal is not satisfactory.

The commission said: The European Union recognises that agricultural negotiations have now entered a critical phase and these proposals represent a comprehensive, substantive and credible contribution.

It said it expected its negotiating partners to respond constructively.

The EU proposals are fully conditional on satisfactory movement in other areas of the negotiation, the statement said.

Trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said he believed France had already raised objections.

There was a suggestion by France, I gather, that the proposals that we’re making are outside the commission’s negotiating mandate, he said, referring to talks earlier on Friday between member states.

It’s a matter for France obviously to make that claim and to sustain it, he added.

Mandelson said that the offer was the Union’s “bottom line” and urged the negotiating partners — the United States, Brazil, India and Australia — to respond in kind before December.

Negotiators have been working to resolve the standoff against a mid-December deadline to agree on the broad outlines of a global trade accord in time for a World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong.

It can, indeed it must, resolve the current blockage in agricultural negotiations, and unblock progress across the full range of Doha’s negotiating blocks, Mandelson said, referring to the Doha round of trade talks.

It is a substantial, credible and comprehensive offer, he told reporters in Brussels. The cuts are deep and real. This will drive down our tariffs across the board.

He said the EU was in no way caving on demands that it improve its offer.

We will not simply meet the demands of those who have the loudest voices, nor will we take risks neither with our own partners’ livelihoods, or those in the developing world, he said.

This is Europe’s bottom line. It comes with important conditions, to get those other parts of the agricultural agenda and the rest of the Doha negotiations moving again.—AFP