By William Schomberg
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe's trade chief Peter Mandelsonwon the backing of his boss on Wednesday in a mounting war ofwords with French President Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of talks totry to salvage a world trade deal.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso continuesto trust Mandelson, a Commission spokeswoman said, afterSarkozy's latest criticism of the British commissioner foroffering too many concessions on agriculture in the WTO talks.
"Peter Mandelson has done a great deal of difficult workand negotiates for all 27 member states and has done excellentwork," spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen said in a statement onbehalf of Barroso.
In a rare public row between an EU commissioner and aEuropean leader, Mandelson complained on Tuesday that Sarkozywas undermining his attempts to negotiate a good deal forEurope in the WTO's long-delayed Doha round.
On Wednesday, Mandelson's spokesman said Sarkozy used"false assumptions" for claiming that a WTO deal would lead toa 20 percent cut in EU farming output and 100,000 job losses.
"The figures he is parading are not valid on the basis ofcurrent discussions in Geneva," spokesman Peter Power said.
The EU's agriculture spokesman added the figure was"utterly incorrect" because it assumed Brussels accepted everydemand of a group of 20 developing countries, which it wouldnever do.
The Commission has estimated that the latest WTO proposalswould cause a 1.1 percent drop in EU agriculture production anda 2.5 percent fall in employment in the sector by 2014.
Ministers are due to meet at the WTO from July 21. Withouta breakthrough, the round will soon be overtaken by the changeat the White House, possibly delaying it by several more years.
The round was launched in 2001 to help poor countriesexport more and to boost the global economy but it has lurchedfrom crisis to crisis for most of the time since then.
PROSPECTS BLEAK
Sarkozy this week took over the EU's presidency and as suchwill play a key role in formulating the bloc's response to anydeal Mandelson and the other WTO ministers are able to strike.
Trade experts say the prospects are bleak for an elusivetrade-off between cuts by rich countries in farm subsidies andimport tariffs, and by emerging nations such as Brazil or Chinain import tariffs for manufactured goods like cars orchemicals.
But if European exporters get a bit more access to emergingeconomies, France may struggle to drum up opposition to a dealamong other key EU states such as its main ally, Germany, tradewatchers say.
EU officials say Sarkozy's verbal assault could be anattempt to intimidate Mandelson out of making concessions.
"But how well thought out is that? Sarkozy would be settinghimself up as an easy target for taking the blame if there is acollapse of the round," an EU diplomat said, speaking oncondition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of issues.
Fredrik Erixon, a trade expert at the European Centre forInternational Political Economy, a Brussels think-tank, saidSarkozy might be positioning himself to cope with outrage fromFrench farmers in the unlikely event of a WTO deal this month.
"He doesn't have much to lose by making these very toughstatements against Mandelson," Erixon said. "If there is anagreement, the French farmers are going to oppose it andSarkozy can at least claim to have tried his best for them."
(Editing by Caroline Drees)
