On May 8, the EU Observer published an article about EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson's (UK) remarks during a BBC interview describing the ‘protectionist’ trade policies of U.S. Democratic Presidential candidates as ‘mirages.’
His exact quote ‘It is irresponsible to be pretending to people you can erect new protection, new tariff barriers around your economy in this 21st century global age and still succeed in sustaining people's living standards and jobs’…’It is a mirage and they know it.’
Commissioner attacks protectionist ‘mirage of Obama, Clinton‘ May 8, 2008 EU Observer
The article focuses almost completely on his criticism of the candidates’ trade policies, with small diversions to discuss U.S.-EU trade in general.
On the other hand, American coverage of the same BBC interview, as reported in The New York Times and the Washington Post (both articles pulled from REUTERS) uses a completely different headline ‘U.S. Democrats Reassure EU Over Stance on Doha Talks (May 8)’ and discusses Mandelson's criticism of the Democratic Presidential Candidate's trade stances in terms of the World Trade Organization's Doha multilateral trade neogiations. The articles note that Mandelson is currently pushing for a WTO deal now (conclusion of the talks has been much delayed, with no sign of a breakthrough) .
‘U.S. Democrats Reassure EU Over Stance on Doha Talks’ May 8, 2008 Washington Post
We will include the New York Times version as well (click here for the link). No other articles could be found about this in the American press at the time. Perhaps this says something about the importance the American media places on comments made by a major trade figure in of one of the United State's largest trading partners, the European Union.
