SAINT PIERRE LE VIGER (France): French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Tuesday that France would veto negotiations at the World Trade Organisation if French farming interests were threatened.

“In negotiations at the WTO, if there are efforts to be made, then let everyone make them. Right now, I do do not see what efforts the United States is prepared to make,” Mr Sarkozy told a group of farmers in northern France.

“If that is not understood at the World Trade Organisation negotiating table, France will use its veto,” he said, also calling on Brazil and India to come forward with concessions.

“I am totally determined to defend agriculture as an element of our country's strategic economic power,” Mr Sarkozy said, assuring the gathering that `agriculture has a future’.

He said: “I am not prepared to swap agriculture for services, within the framework of the World Trade Organisation. We cannot keep on negotiating like this.” The current round of WTO talks on trade liberalisation, launched in 2001 but suspended in July last year, has foundered largely over the issue of farming, as members have failed to narrow differences on issues such as generous European Union and US farming subsidies.

The four key WTO players — the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India — have pledged to redouble their efforts to reach their own agreement by mid-June. They are scheduled to meet in London on June 10, and hold another meeting between June 14 and 19.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said on Tuesday that Europe could not accept an agreement to resolve WTO free-trade talks at any price.—AFP