EU's Mandelson wants trade round on energy

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

BRUSSELS, June 23: The European Union's trade chief Peter Mandelson favours a new round of global trade talks to cover the energy sector, the Wall Street Journal's Europe edition reported on Friday.

Mandelson, who is embroiled in slow-moving negotiations to close the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha Round, said he wanted to see trade in oil and gas subjected to the same ''ordinary rules'' as other goods, the newspaper said.

But he told the Journal that he recognised the idea could be fraught with problems.

Bringing energy trade and investment under WTO rules and enforcement procedures would require producers to provide free access to transit, the EU Trade Commissioner said.

That would include the sensitive issue of breaking Russia's monopoly over access to its gas pipelines, the newspaper said.

The Journal said any such trade round would probably be years away and that Mandelson had acknowleged that securing such a deal would be difficult.

''The difficulty is that oil and gas are viewed by those that have them as a national security issue, as well as an economic good. And they are a source of political strength,'' he was quoted as saying.

However, Mandelson said the WTO was the best way to secure structural change in areas states regard as fundamental to their interests, the paper reported.

REUTERS

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