Puppet Show

Pascal Lamy is probably the most influential man you’ve never heard of. In many ways, he is the most powerful man in Europe – despite what certain bellicose prime ministers might care to believe. For Pascal Lamy is the EU trade commissioner and leader of the European Commission’s Directorate General on Trade (DG Trade). And since the 1957 Treaty of Rome gave the European Commission exclusive powers to initiate European Community trade policies, and the sole ‘external’ voice to negotiate for the community on the global trading stage, that means that when Lamy speaks at the WTO he speaks for the whole of Europe – whether we have heard of him or not.

Understandably, the corporations and their lobbyists are very keen to win Lamy’s favour. Unfortunately for the world, Lamy seems to feel the same way about them; he shares their desire to open up markets to the greatest extent possible and increase European industry’s opportunities in world markets. He also has an unparalleled flair for shrouding the EU’s trade agenda in ‘sustainable development’ rhetoric. Like the corporations, he sees a new WTO trade round as the EU’s ‘number-one...

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