US ready to talk tough to get Apec deal

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Andrew Ward, FT Syndication Service
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush will seek to breathe fresh life into the stalled Doha round of international trade negotiations during the annual summit of Pacific Rim nations in Sydney this week.
The White House said it was ready to make "tough choices" if other countries were also prepared to offer the concessions necessary to reach a deal after six years of fruitless haggling.
Mr Bush said Doha would be his economic priority at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit, which brings together 21 countries that together generate half of global trade.
The Apec event coincides with the resumption of Doha negotiations in Geneva this week, after the breakdown of talks in June over agricultural subsidies and tariffs.
Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organisation, is expected to be in Sydney to cajole Apec members - including China, Japan and South Korea - to make another push to complete the Doha round.
Christine Lagarde, French economic minister, last week said she did not expect a global trade deal in the foreseeable future because the divisions among WTO members remained "too wide".
Her comments reflected widespread pessimism about the chances of progress, amid mounting protectionist sentiment in the US and Europe and unresolved differences between rich countries and the developing world.
But Dan Price, deputy US national security advisor for economic affairs, said Mr Bush remained hopeful of successful completion to the Doha round. "The president understands that this is difficult," he said. "But the administration is prepared to make the tough choices if others are likewise prepared to make those tough choices to create new trade flows."
Mr Price said the US would also use the Apec summit to advance plans launched last year to create a Pacific region free-trade agreement - a deal that would deepen economic integration between North America and east Asia. More than two-thirds of US exports are made to Pacific Rim countries.
With the annual G8 meeting of industrial nations, Apec is one of the two big international summits routinely attended by the US president each year.
Mr Bush arrives in Sydney on Tuesday and has bilateral meetings planned with several leaders, including President Hu Jintao of China and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, before the main summit next weekend.
In addition to trade, other items on the US agenda include climate change and North Korea.
Mr Bush is under pressure to persuade China to curb carbon emissions after making a commitment in June to take a leadership role in tackling global warming.