LONDON, Aug 12 (AFP) - Britain's Peter Mandelson, a close ally of Prime Minister Tony Blair, said Thursday he was excited to have been named the new European Union commissioner for trade.
"I'm excited at being given this responsibility, both for trade policy and the international dimension of competitiveness," Mandelson, twice a former British government minister, said in a written statement.
"Europe will continue to benefit from globalisation as long as trade and investment are further liberalised and if Europe preserves its long-term competitiveness, its capacity for innovation and its social market economy," he said.
Once the new European Commission takes office on November 1, Mandelson will be the EU's chief negotiator at a critical juncture in the current round of liberalisation talks at the World Trade Organisation.
He was appointed to the trade portfolio in the 24-strong line-up for the new commission announced by president-elect Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.
"In our approach to trade, the EU is interested in both economics and values," he said in his statement.
"We need to sustain a win-win, multi-lateral process of negotiation and this will guide me in the next stage of the Doha development round in which market growth and market access remain equally important."
The Doha round of World Trade Organisation talks has stalled on the EU's stubbornness in reforming its Common Agricultural Policy which developing countries say denies them fair access to European markets.
Downing Street said in a statement: "We are delighted that Peter Mandelson has been given such an important portfolio."
Mandelson, who was forced to resign twice as a British cabinet minister after being involved in fiascos that embarrassed Blair's government, was widely tipped for the trade post by the British press.