France threatens UK hopes of £10bn US trade deal at G8

 
14 June 2013

France threw a spanner in David Cameron’s key G8 ambition to “press ahead” with a major trade deal between Europe and America.

As world leaders prepared to fly to Britain this weekend, Paris demanded special protection for its movie and music industries, fearing they could be swamped by US imports.

The French ambassador to London Bernard Emié urged: “The market cannot solve everything. A movie series is not a car. You cannot compare culture to other commodities.”

Trade talks will dominate Monday’s opening session of the G8 at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. The Prime Minister used an eve-of-summit interview to declare the “moment” had arrived for an EU-US treaty worth some £10 billion to the British economy.

“There’s enough goodwill on both sides to realise this is the moment to push ahead,” he said. Conservative MEP Robert Sturdy said it would be better to postpone the issue than cave in to French demands.

“If we start exempting entire sectors now the USA will have every right to retaliate and the talks could be scuppered before they even begin,” he said. “It is completely counter-productive to exempt an entire industry from the trade talks at this early stage.”

The PM’s other priority, a crackdown on tax havens, suffered a setback when Bermuda defied calls to adopt transparency rules ahead of the summit. But he said: “This issue, which for years was at the margins of debate, is now much closer to the centre of debate.”

The two-day G8 gathering will bring together the leaders of the UK, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia.

No 10 today announced plans to award communities cash aid in return for pulling down barriers between Loyalist and Republican areas.

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