New push launched to break WTO trade deadlock

Jan 9, 2007, 1:09 GMT

Washington - Top US and European Union officials Monday launched a new push to break a six-month deadlock in key international trade negotiations aimed at lowering trade barriers to help developing countries.

But officials conceded bridging the differences wouldn't be easy.

After a high level White House meeting, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the window of opportunity was small - and if no agreement is reached within the next three months, it could be years to 'reopen' the window.

At issue is the so-called Doha round of trade talks within the World Trade Organization (WTO), named after the capital of Qatar that hosted the first round of talks in 2001. Developing nations complain that their important agricultural exports can't compete with subsidized prices charged by farmers in wealthier nations.

US President George W Bush and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, discussed the issue earlier in the day at the White House, and acknowledged the importance of the talks to help impoverished nations.

Barroso emphasized the need to move quickly on reaching a deal and said that he and Bush ordered their negotiators to reach a 'solution as soon as possible.'

'We are really at defining moment,' Barroso said.

Later, Mandelson and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab echoed the urgency of finding a solution.

'The parting words of President Bush to us were: 'Susan and Mandelson, go and get it done',' Mandelson quipped.

Pressed for details by reporters, the two officials remained vague and took only several questions.

'The window of opportunity is there during the first quarter of the year. It would take some years to reopen this window if we cannot make it in this first quarter,' Mandelson said.

Schwab however said she would not want to set any 'fictitious' deadline.

There was another signal from Europe that talks would soon resume after they were suspended in July 2006. In Berlin on Monday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he believes there was still a chance of a breakthrough.

'Despite all the difficulties, we have embarked on a path that makes an agreement appear possible,' Steinmeier said after talks with the director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy.

Talks collapsed in July in Geneva with the US and EU pointing fingers at each other. At the time, the five years of talks appeared to have hit a dead-end.

The US is a huge farm export nation, sending 30 per cent of its products abroad, and the Bush administration needs a trade deal to offset a rollback in government subsidies with increased access to foreign markets.

The US has said that EU average agriculture tariffs of 23 per cent are nearly twice that of the US' 12 per cent. The average global tariff on farm imports is 62 per cent.