PETER MANDELSON, the European Trade Commissioner, may have resolved the “bra wars” trade crisis, but he will have done little to salvage his reputation. Although he has tried to shift responsibility to others, in Brussels the blame for the crisis is sticking to him.

It is the latest in a series of disappointments for a politician who had hoped that his third position in power — after being forced to resign as Northern Ireland Secretary and as Trade and Industry Secretary — would at last enable him to prove his competence.

Although he was widely heralded as one of the brightest of the new intake of commissioners, his performance in the extremely complicated and technical trade brief has been seen as disappointing.

Soon after being appointed to one of the most powerful positions in the Commission, he held a press conference all but claiming to have resolved the increasingly bitter dispute between the United States and the European Union over subsidies to the asircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus.

His apparent triumph turned to failure and acrimony after the talks broke down and Robert Zellick, his American counterpart, accused him of trying to negotiate through the media and compared him unfavourably to his predecessor, the highly respected Pascal Lamy.

Mr Zellick and Mr Mandelson are still involved in a public squabble over who slammed down the phone on whom.

Mr Mandelson’s priority was to resolve the Doha world trade round, but there, too, he has suffered setbacks and criticism, particularly from NGOs, which claim that he has sold out on his promises to help the developing world.

Over the new year, the man who has an uncanny ability to attract personal controversy was at the centre of the “yachtgate” storm, in which he tacked a Caribbean holiday on the back of an official Commission trip and enjoyed hospitality on the private yacht of Paul Allen, the Microsoft billionaire, without declaring it.

When it comes to political pedigree, even Mr Mandelson cannot compete with Bo Xilai. He is a communist “princeling”, son of a vice-premier who was one of the Eight Immortals — revolutionary veterans who wielded enormous power in the 1980s and 1990s.

The rise of the younger Mr Bo has been swift. In three years, the 57-year-old has hopped from being Mayor of the port city of Dalian to Governor of Liaoning province, to China’s pointman on trade. The latest rumours have it that he may soon become a provincial leader, possibly of restive western Xinjiang and then move into the Politburo.

Mr Bo has received good marks in his 19 months as Trade Minister and has been referred to by some Chinese media as the “charm minister”. One American trade official said: “He’s a very take-charge guy.”

He was born in impoverished northern Shanxhi province. During the Cultural Revolution he was assigned to factory work, but later won entry to Beijing University, where he read history. He joined the Communist Party in 1980 and earned his political spurs with positions at the core of the party hierarchy.