First, the EU did not break off informal negotiations with China on textile imports but requested formal consultations on two product categories of nine under investigation. This is not the same as “going to the World Trade Organisation” and was made on the basis of strong evidence of irreparable damage to European industry that demanded immediate action. It was made with the understanding of the Chinese and did not in any way preclude or displace the wider strategy of negotiation over rapidly rising Chinese textile imports. Negotiations are now intensifying.

Secondly, it is simply not correct to state that the EU was unwilling to consider the eventual elimination of subsidies in aircraft talks with the US. The deal I put on the table on Friday proposed immediate, realistic and concrete cuts in support on both sides as part of a two-phase deal towards a more comprehensive agreement on eliminating government supports.

The terms of this agreement were not “spun” to the press: they were made public to set the record straight following a public accusation by Boeing chairman Lewis Platt that the EU had made no constructive input to the negotiation. The US went to the WTO this week not because Europe went public with a negotiating proposal, but because Boeing wants to raise the stakes ahead of this month’s Paris Airshow and Airbus’s launch of the A350.

Yours sincerely,
PETER MANDELSON,
EU Commissioner for Trade,
European Commission,
Rue de la Loi 200, B1049 Brussels.
June 3.

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