EU reaches terms with France on US free trade talks

EU trade ministers finally thrashed out a deal Friday on how to negotiate for a free trade deal with the United States, after meeting a French demand to exclude the key audiovisual sector.
After some 13 hours of talks, ministers had reached what one EU source described as a "not in, not out" formula.
Officials said the ministers would leave the audiovisual sector out of the mandate for initial talks over what would be the world's biggest free trade deal, as Paris had insisted.
But the European Commission would still have the right to raise "any issue" during the negotiations if it saw fit.
French Commerce Minister Nicole Bricq said she welcomed the outcome because it gave Paris "the exclusion of the audiovisual sector" since if the Commission asked for it to be included in the future, that would require a unanimous vote.
"In that case, it would be the same procedure again -- one would ask the French position and we would say 'No' again," added.
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, who will lead the talks, stressed that the accord was "not a carve out."