Lamy’s mastery of vital trade negotiating skills could be key for EU

Date: 16/09/1999

By Simon Taylor

INCOMING Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy has attracted more media interest than the latest French film starlet since news of his appointment was transmitted round the world.

In the days that followed, newspapers were full of frantic speculation about whether Romano Prodi had gone mad in choosing a Frenchman, of all people, for the Union's top commercial post.

Journalists conjured up visions of a defiant Gallic 'Non' if Lamy came under intense pressure to accept a deal slashing handouts for French farmers or tearing up protection for high-brow film makers.

As always, the reality is less dramatic. A former senior advisor to Jacques Delors, Lamy is skilled at global trade negotiations and can take personal credit for delivering major concessions in the EU's precious farm sector against the gut instincts of his boss during the last trade round.

In the dark days of the early Nineties, when French opposition to the deal on the table looked like scuppering years of painful negotiations, Lamy swung Paris round into accepting a deal expected to boost world trade by several billion euro.

As Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform, who got to know the Frenchman while researching a book on Delors, says: "He felt that Delors should have taken a more pro-trade line."

In this vein, many observers see Lamy's appointment as a shrewd move, designed to send a very strong signal to an increasingly aggressive US that the Union will not roll over in the forthcoming talks.

At the same time, if the EU is forced into a serious rethink of its generous support system to farmers, the powerful French farming sector will stomach harsh lessons from Lamy better than they would from a free-trader like his predecessor Sir Leon Brittan or Dutch hyper-liberal Frits Bolkestein, who was originally tipped for the job.

According to Grant, Lamy is a clever choice. "He is a master of detail, which you need to be to be able to negotiate successfully on trade," he says. Grant points out that as well as being at the very heart of France's ruling Socialist clique, Lamy is well-tuned to the Anglocentric view of the world. Nor will he be afraid to argue for a deal which ruffles a few political feathers back home.

In his appearance before MEPs, Lamy demonstrated his support for the trade policy established in the Brittan era, backing a comprehensive trade round and promising to defend the EU's ban on hormone-treated meat.

For the first year, Lamy will have to deal with the formidable US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, whose refusal to bow to Brittan's own sense of superiority drove the British barrister wild.

But US trade insiders expect Barshefsky to stand down after next year's presidential elections, even if the Democrats win. She is said to be ready to return to a more lucrative private sector post after eight years in government.

Clinton's successor is certain to replace the former timber industry lobbyist with someone hardened in the cut and thrust of Washington's commercial-legal circuit.

The other new face at the start of the next round will be the new head of the World Trade Organisation, former New Zealand Prime Minister Mike Moore. He will oversee the agenda-setting at the Seattle ministerial meeting in November and the first two-and-a-half years of negotiations before handing over to the Thai, Supachai Panichpakdi, who will steer the talks to a conclusion.

Article forms part of a survey on world trade, p13-20.