EU, US to launch talks for world's biggest trade pact

The EU and United States are set to launch negotiations today to create the world's biggest free-trade pact despite a hard line by France to protect its film and culture sectors from Hollywood.
Such a trade deal is touted as a potentially huge boost to business, economic growth and job creation, but the culture issue is seen as potentially offering a bargaining chip to the US side.
President Barack Obama and European leaders gathered at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland prepared to announce the formal start of talks on the pact, just days after the EU thrashed out a last-minute deal to keep the French happy.

But the head of the EU executive, Jose Manuel Barroso, who is also at the summit along with EU president Herman Van Rompuy, weighed in with an unusually outspoken criticism of France for its "reactionary" behaviour to defend its audiovisual and cultural industry.
"Some say they belong to the left, but in fact they are culturally extremely reactionary," the president of the European Commission said in an interview with the International Herald Tribune today.
If the EU-US deal is done, it would be the world's largest Free Trade Agreement: bilateral trade in goods last year was worth some 500 billion euros (USD 670 billion), with another 280 billion euros in services and trillions in investment flows.

The EU says an FTA would add about 119 billion euros annually to the EU economy, and 95 billion euros for the United States.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is hosting the G8 meeting of leading industrialised nations, made no mention of the row with France as he hailed the deal.
"My focus is very clear -- getting agreements, signing deals, making progress on issues that will help hard working families right here in the United Kingdom. For me, that's what the agenda of this G8 is all about," Cameron said.
The British prime minister's spokesman said he expected it to take "twelve to eighteen months" for the EU and US to complete negotiations, dismissing speculation that it could take years for anyone to see the benefits.