EU reaches compromise on US free trade talks

EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht (AFP/Eric Piermont)

BRUSSELS: The European Union thrashed out a compromise Friday on how to negotiate the world's biggest free trade deal with the United States, meeting France's demands to ensure its prized 'cultural exception' would not be bargained away.

EU officials said trade ministers had agreed that the audiovisual sector would be excluded from the talks mandate, as demanded by Paris, but that the European Commission would have the right to raise "any issue" during the negotiations if it saw fit later, meeting the needs of both sides.

After some 12 hours of talks, ministers had agreed what one EU source described as a "not in, not out" formula.

French Commerce Minister Nicole Bricq said she welcomed the outcome because it gave Paris "the exclusion of the audiovisual sector" since if the Commission asked for it to be included in the future, that would require a unanimous vote - that is, France would have a veto.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, who will lead the talks, stressed meanwhile that the accord was "not a carve out."

"I am going to listen to what my American friends say on this (and) then we can then ... ask for additional mandates" if needed, De Gucht said.

He said he could "live with" the agreed mandate, adding that he found the French position "understandable" given that technological change was happening so fast in the sector.

It was better to have the flexibility to come back to the issue as the situation develops, he added.

Washington has said no areas should be excluded from the talks and EU officials had repeatedly warned that any exceptions would only hand Washington an early bargaining chip in what promises to be very tough negotiations.

Ministers were under intense pressure to agree the guidelines on which the European Commission will negotiate the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) so the talks could be formally launched at next week's G8 meeting.