Mandelson Faces EU Ministers’ Ire” was a newspaper headline the day I walked into the EU trade commissioner’s Brussels office. “I am always in trouble with some of them,” says Peter Mandelson, with what looks like a little smirk of enjoyment. “The main brunt is taken by my agriculture commissioner [Mariann Fisher Boel]. She keeps a restraining hand on me and I am prudent. I don’t think I am exceeding my mandate but I have to push the envelope.”
A majority of the 27 farm ministers at a meeting in Brussels late in January said that 54-year-old Mr Mandelson had gone too far in his attempt to kickstart the Doha trade round by saying that the EU could offer cuts in agricultural tariffs close to the 54% demanded by emerging countries if the US cut its farm subsidies.
