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Trade ministers face rough ride towards WTO deal
10/13/2005
GENEVA, Oct 12 (Reuters): The European Union (EU) was under pressure today to accept lower barriers
to farm goods as ministers from leading World Trade Organisation (WTO) states struggled for a
breakthrough in global trade talks.
After the United States gave a fillip to the negotiations, which face an end-year deadline, by offering what it
called "deep" cuts in its farm subsidies, Brussels faced intense calls to match the move and ease its stance
on tariffs.
"There is movement, although insufficient," said Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, referring to the
U.S. offer. "We hope it will induce the other big power to move on market access," he added.
The 148-member WTO needs to agree a blueprint for the final stage of its Doha Round in Hong Kong in
December, but negotiations are snagged on a host of issues, of which agriculture is the most pressing.
Failure could kill the round, which has been touted as capable-if successful-of giving a multi-billion dollar
boost to the world economy and lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
After months of marking time, a series of ministerial meetings that kicked off on Monday in Zurich, where
the United States unveiled its subsidy offer, had given "real movement" to the talks, U.S. Trade
Representative (USTR) Rob Portman said.
But the difficulties remain large. The United States and the European Union-whose farmers are amongst the
world's most protected-face conflicting demands from trading partners, who urge more liberalisation and
some of their own constituents who want fewer concessions.
Meanwhile, Senator Saxby Chambliss, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, told U.S. negotiators
on Tuesday they should not try to dictate to Congress how much they could spend on farmers.
In a similar vein, France's Trade Minister Christine Lagarde told the European Union's trade chief Peter
Mandelson that he had overstepped the mark in agreeing to deepen subsidy cuts and to consider setting a
cap on import tariffs.
Nevertheless, trade negotiators and analysts are clear that without further concessions by the EU on market
access, the road to a deal on Doha at Hong Kong will be blocked.
"The EU is going to have to do its part. If it is going to sit on its existing positions then the Doha Round
will fail," warned former USTR Clayton Yeutter in a telephone interview with the news agency.
But not all WTO members were happy with using small groups of countries as a means to drive the
negotiations forward.
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