Négociations commerciales: constat d'échec à Genève.
La France est en grande partie responsable de ce fiasco:
When the French authorities started their bickering with the European Commission two weeks ago, it became clear to all observers that the road to the World Trade Organization meeting to be held in Hong Kong in mid-December would have more twists and turns than initially expected. How much harder it is for France to walk along that road when she insists on systematically and repeatedly shooting herself in the foot! (...)
Viewed from the rest of the world, there is something quite shocking about the contrast between Europe's stingy offer in agriculture, and its incredibly demanding requests in industrial goods and services. This abyss is a recipe for a failure in Hong Kong which will have one sure effect: It will speed up the constitution of regional agreements, in particular those built around India and China. European exporters will be left out of these huge and dynamic markets for a long time -- a perspective that should be of greater concern to low-growth France than to her higher-growth European partners. The times when regionalism was a European card are over. Nowadays, the regional option plays against Europe. For both France and the rest of Europe, the Hong Kong meeting is a unique window of opportunity where the battle in favor of nondiscriminatory openness of world markets should be won. If this window is allowed to close, it will be a long time before it opens again.
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