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“A spectacular political and trade policy gesture”: this is how Le Monde describes the move being prepared by Paris, which may make France the only EU state to refuse to grant a negotiation mandate to the European Commission on the occasion of the meeting of EU trade ministers in Luxembourg on June 14.
The initiative could block talks with Washington on a free-trade agreement, which have been scheduled to take place behind the scenes at the next G8 summit in Northern Ireland on June 17 and 18.
The daily explains the attitude of President François Hollande’s administration —
In its bid to protect the cultural exception, the government will flatly refuse to proceed with talks if audiovisual media are not excluded — a policy that has to date been rejected by the Commission, as well as Germany and the UK.
