Europe has a world to win

International talks to reduce agriculture subsidies and other trade barriers - which could give an unprecedented boost to poor countries - are heading for the buffers. Earlier this week it looked as though Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, had negotiated a united EU offer to cut CAP subsidies by 71% and farm import duties by 60% over a long period. Even though these offers are not as big as they seem - they involve switching subsidies from products that are highly trade distorting to ones that are only moderately so - it was nevertheless a united front with which Europe could talk to the rest of the world, and thus get the Doha round of trade talks - suspended for more than two years because poor nations refused to carry on until rich ones agreed to a level playing field for farming - under way again.

Once again France is holding up progress. Its farming lobby, small in numbers but huge in political clout, refuses to give up lucrative subsidies, even though the resulting overproduction shuts third world countries out of business. It is disabling for the EU that a policy that is agreed by nearly all its 25 member countries can be stymied by farmers in one country. And it is even more disabling for the world trade talks that a group of subsidy junkies in just one country can derail an entire global effort. It is ridiculous to maintain a system that devours $48bn a year from an EU budget that ought to be putting cash behind the industries of the future, not those of the past. There is a strong case for ending the CAP altogether - even if no other country reciprocates - since this would free money for other priorities, including countryside management. In the real world, however, that is not politically possible; so the next best thing is to use concessions as a lever to gain matching ones from the US and Japan, the other two giant recipients of subsidies.

With 158 nations now negotiating within the World Trade Organisation, these already complex talks could become unmanageable if they disintegrate into an unending mismatch of bi-laterals. The simplest solution would be for participants to agree to end all subsidies over time, with a much longer timetable for poor countries. But that seems like a pipe dream thanks to France's farmers. The Doha round was a chance for Europe to surprise its critics and behave as the economic powerhouse she could so easily be. For that to happen, the EU must clean up its act before the critical WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December. If that means a showdown with the French farmers, then so much the better.