His Motto Might Be: ‘That’s the Spirit!’
Agriculture Minister Jean-Pierre Soisson is urging his countrymen to “drink lots of white wine” as a patriotic duty in a trade war with the United States.
Washington two weeks ago vowed to slap punitive tariffs of 200% on imported white wines in a dispute with the European Community over subsidized oil-seed exports, which has blocked a a GATT world trade pact.
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade has been under negotiation for the past six years to lower trade barriers in agriculture, services and 13 other sectors.
“This will be our nice, discreet and logical response to the American measures,” Soisson said.
He said giving in to U.S. demands in the negotiations, which resume this week in Washington, would mean “laying a quarter of French agriculture fallow.”
“I don’t see why agriculture should alone bear the brunt of the failure of the negotiations,” Soisson said. “The Americans are neither ethical nor moral. They are just doing business.”
The minister also said he would oppose implementation of a law severely restricting advertising of alcohol.
“I’m against implementing this law and I personally will not sign the decrees. There are more important things at the moment than creating more regulations to obstruct French winegrowers,” he said.
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