BRUSSELS — European Union trade chief Karel de Gucht urged EU members on Thursday not to exclude film and television from EU-US free trade talks, saying that could prompt similar action from the Americans and undermine an eventual deal. France said on Tuesday it had secured the backing of 13 other EU members in its demand that the audio-visual sector be removed from the negotiating mandate, having threatened in April to block the start of talks. De Gucht told a business conference in Brussels that cultural diversity in Europe was not under threat, nor the right to subsidize or set quotas for television and film. However, he said it would wrong to start negotiations with red lines already painted out. The United States and the EU aim to start negotiating a TransAtlantic free trade pact by June, embracing half of world economic output and a third of all trade. A deal could add 0.5 percent to the EU economy and 0.4 percent to the US economy by 2027, according to the European Commission. — Reuters
