WTO heavyweights try to smooth the path to Hong Kong

GENEVA (AFP) - Key players from the World Trade Organisation were returning to the table to try to smooth the path to the global body's Hong Kong conference, now just three weeks away.

Trade chiefs from Brazil, the European Union, India, Japan and the United States were not expected to hold detailed discussions on their persistent differences, particularly over tariffs on farm goods, which are holding up international trade liberalisation talks.

Instead, they were likely to focus on "process and management" in the run up to the December 13-18 Hong Kong ministerial conference, a diplomat told AFP.

The gathering comes as Pascal Lamy, head of the 148-nation WTO, works with the chairs of the organisation's different negotiating groups to try to draft the agenda for Hong Kong.

At the conference, trading nations are set to take stock of progress in their four-year-old Doha Round talks.

The original goal in Hong Kong had been to approve the outlines of a treaty that would ultimately cut subsidies, tariffs and other trade barriers and use commerce to reduce poverty in the developing world.

Two weeks ago, WTO members said they would have to lower that target and would probably have to meet again in March in order to have any chance of meeting their December 2006 deadline for completing the Doha Round.

So exactly what they now plan to do in Hong Kong remains unclear, and the answer is likely to be found in Lamy's draft, which diplomats said he is expected to produce at the end of this week.

Agreement among the WTO's big hitters is seen as a crucial step towards an accord among the full membership.

After weeks of finger-pointing among the heavyweights, as well as prodding from other members including those involved in last week's summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, there has been little to suggest that any last-minute compromise will emerge before Hong Kong.

In addition to the spat over farm tariffs -- where the EU has faced pressure from Brazil, India and the US to offer deeper cuts, and Japan is wary of opening up its farm sector to far-reaching liberalisation -- the five have been unable to settle their differences over trade in industrial goods and in services.

Rich countries have been pressing for more negotiations in those areas, saying there must be "ambition" across the talks. But Brazil and India have resisted this until the farm issue is settled.

Celine Charveriat, head of the trade campaign at the advocacy group Oxfam said: "Ambition is good, if it is about development, but ambition must not be used as a smokescreen for forcing poor countries to agree to dramatic and premature market opening, in agriculture, industry or services."

A battle within the 25-nation EU has also complicated the talks, with France slamming EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson for offering too many farm concessions.

But after a meeting in Brussels on Monday, Mandelson said EU member states were now united behind him. He also cautioned other WTO members, saying he would go no further on farm tariffs in the lead up to Hong Kong.

The Doha Round, launched in Qatar in 2001, is running behind schedule: it was meant to end in 2004, but members shifted that deadline to 2006 after a failed ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico in 2003.