https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/s...alia-fbz8gjfc3
Submarine row: France threatens to block EU trade deal with Australia
France has threatened to veto and block an EU free trade agreement with Australia over the cancellation of a €50 billion submarine deal following last week’s security alliance between the Australians, Americans and British.
The French move risks dividing the EU amid widespread reluctance among European countries to become involved in the row, which is seen as a commercial dispute between Paris, Washington, London and Canberra.
Clément Beaune, the French Europe minister, said that Paris would block any further progress in the trade talks, which were expected to make a breakthrough with a planned 12th round of negotiations in Brussels next month…..
“Keeping one’s word is the condition of trust between democracies and between allies,” he said. “So it is unthinkable to move forward ontrade negotiations as if nothing had happened with a country in which we no longer trust.”…..
Any decision to block an agreement will anger European governments, such as the Dutch, Swedes and Irish while causing unease in Berlin.….
France faces an uphill struggle to convince other European countries to back it in the dispute with Australia over an arms industry contract that has never been discussed at the political level in the EU.
Speaking last Friday as the dispute escalated, Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, specifically ruled out “ad hoc” suspension of the trade talks. “Trade agreements with Australia will continue down their path, and we will see how things develop,” he said, last Friday.
Senior EU diplomats have described the row as a “small hiccup” that only affects the French arms industry over a bilateral French-Australia security agreement that Paris agreed unilaterally without reference to the EU……