EU trade czar hopes U.S. talks gear up quickly

0 Comments | USA TODAY, February, 2005 | by Noelle Knox

It's hard to imagine the dapper Peter Mandelson swimming for his life into the middle of a lake on the Serengeti in Africa while an enraged elephant threw his clothes about on the water's shore.

"That was my first experience getting myself out of some nasty scrapes," said Mandelson, recalling his "madcap adventure" in a tiny, "tin-pot car" at the age of 18, the year he worked as a volunteer at a rural aid center in northern Tanzania.

Since then, Mandelson, now 51, has had plenty of practice. Those skills are just what he needs for his new job as the trade czar for the European Union, the 25-nation trade and regulatory alliance, and America's largest trading partner.

Mandelson, who took over the trade post in November, arrives in Washington tonight for...