WTO deal critical to ease food crisis: Mandelson
A World Trade Organisation agreement removing barriers to commerce is "absolutely essential'' to bring down soaring food prices, European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said. "We have to address the underlying problems of demand and supply of food,'' he said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where he and hundreds of business executives are attending the Middle East's World Economic Forum. "To do that, we have to bring about a fundamental reform of trade in the world, and that can only be brought about by a WTO deal.''