French Farm Minister Michel Barnier said on Saturday conditions were not right for a deal in global trade talks and that Europe had given far too much on agriculture in an effort to reach a deal.
Barnier, who was appointed in a cabinet reshuffle on June 19, told Reuters in an interview he would go on the offensive to preserve Europe's agricultural policy which he said was the "number 1 economic policy". "I do not see how we can get an agreement," he said on the sidelines of a conference about protectionism.
"I do not see the conditions of an agreement given the rigid and restrictive positions of the other regions of the world despite the big effort that Europe has made."
Talks between the United States, the European Union, India and Brazil to try and reach a deal on the Doha round of trade talks collapsed earlier this month over a dispute about trade distorting farm policies. Brazil and India said the United States and Europe were demanding too high a price for cutting their farm subsidies.
France, whose farmers are dwindling in numbers but are still a powerful political lobby, is traditionally the staunchest defender of farming interests in the EU.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has threatened to veto any eventual trade deal that goes too far on agriculture.
Barnier said Europe had already put too much on the negotiating table. "I think we've gone very far, too far, without assuring that there was a balance or reciprocity with other regions of the world," he said. "For the moment we don't have any reciprocity from the United States. No reciprocity from the big emerging market countries."
Barnier said he would fight for farming interests. France is represented at the World Trade Organisation talks by EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who also attended the debate on protectionism.
Formally, the EU has proposed cutting farm import tariffs by an average of 39 percent, and Mandelson has said he could raise the cut to around 50 percent if other countries moved too. On Saturday, Mandelson said he would not accept an "unreasonable" outcome in trade talks or one that went further than had already been agreed on agriculture. Mandelson said on Friday the window of opportunity for reaching a world trade deal was "very small".