EU and U.S. trade blame - WTO deadline beyond reach
20 April, 2006
Richard Waddington and Doug Palmer
Trading powers are struggling to bridge the gaps that stand in the way of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha round before it finally runs out of time.
Months of cautious diplomacy gave way to what appeared a trans-Atlantic blame game, as diplomats in Geneva put a brave face on another setback by promising to intensify negotiations.
Speaking in Helsinki, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said he was 'looking first to the United States' for 'realism' on agriculture.
'What the U.S. is currently demanding is not acceptable to most WTO members -- representing half of humanity in fact -- and not implementable in Europe,' he said in a speech.
Washington responded in unusually strong terms.
'The (European) Commission is quite adept at speeches, press conferences and finger-pointing,' Christin Baker, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office, told Reuters.
'We just wish they would put the same energy into the needed negotiations to make Doha a success,' she said.
The Doha round, which is also seeking to cut barriers to international trade in services, was launched in late 2001 to boost the global economy and lift millions out of poverty.
The talks cannot drag on beyond July or there will not be enough time to finalise all the detail before U.S. presidential powers to negotiate trade deals lapse in 2007, diplomats say.
The April deadline for a deal on farm and industrial goods, pillars of any eventual trade treaty, was set by trade ministers last December. At the time it had been expected that many of them would come to Geneva to finalise a pact.
But at a meeting on Friday evening of some two dozen leading WTO states with WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, it was decided that ministers should not come. Nor will new deadlines be set.
'Ministers will come when we are ready,' said Brazil's ambassador to the WTO Clodoaldo Hugueney. 'The important thing is we decided to move to continuous negotiations,' he added.
Blame Tactics
Mandelson has spent much of his 18 months as Europe's trade chief under pressure to go further with the EU's offer of farm tariff cuts. But that is stiffly opposed by farming countries in the bloc, especially France.
He has criticised what he says are holes in the U.S. proposals, including plans to cut subsidies paid to farmers.
'While we, since 2003, have been implementing decisions the U.S. has yet to cut a single dollar or dime from its escalating farm spending,' Mandelson said.
Leading developing countries, including Brazil and India, also had to make real cuts, not simply reduce ceilings, in the tariffs they impose on industrial goods such as cars and chemicals which are of key interest for the EU, he said.
Aid group Oxfam, which campaigns for the world's poorest countries, said it was disappointed at the 'blame tactics.'
'Until both trade superpowers get serious about their promises to make this a development round, deadlines will come and go and a deal that helps the poor will remain elusive,' said Luis Morago, head of Oxfam International in Brussels.
The announcement this week that the U.S. Trade Representative, Rob Portman, will leave his post to run the U.S. budget has added to concerns that the talks could fail.
'When a deadline is not met, it is a serious situation,' said one WTO ambassador, who declined to be named.
But despite the fresh failure, the mood at WTO headquarters was not pure despair after the latest round of talks.
Some progress was made on technical issues, such as food aid and export competition, and diplomats accepted a plan by New Zealand ambassador Crawford Falconer, the talks' mediator, for six weeks of non-stop bargaining beginning in May.
'Deadlines have no credibility. What we have to concentrate on is getting the job done,' Falconer told journalists.
(Additional reporting by William Schomberg in Brussels and Rex Merrifield and Laura Vinha in Helsinki)