WTO trade talks threatened by 'deepfreeze', Mandelson warns
Thursday, 6 September 2007
BRUSSELS, Sept 5 (AFP): EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson warned yesterday that long-deadlocked World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks faced a "deepfreeze" if negotiators fail to make a breakthrough in the coming months.
Time is running out for negotiators to make progress as they begin fresh talks this month at the WTO's headquarters in Geneva, he said.
"They have to identify the flexibility they can offer and where they can converge," Mandelson told the BBC in an interview from Brussels.
"That means all of us, including the European Union, I'm not exempting us-so that we can achieve some sort of breakthrough this autumn."
"If we fail to do that then I am afraid that I can see the round going into the deepfreeze and it will be very difficult indeed to remove it and revive it in future," Mandelson added.
Trading nations launched a three-week drive Monday to break the long-standing deadlock in key agricultural negotiations at the WTO, with parallel talks on industrial goods also due to take place later this month.
Mandelson urged the United States "to clarify and to stabilise their negotiating position on trade distorting farm subsidies," which he said would be key to breaking the deadlock that has dogged the talks for years.
"Only in this way in my view will the rest of the negotiations be unlocked," he said. "We are in a stalemate on this and I believe that the United States holds the key to unlocking it."
The Doha development round of trade liberalisation talks, launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, is aimed at cutting subsidies and import duties primarily to help developing nations to take advantage of expanding global trade.
WTO members are at odds over the extent of new cuts in barriers to trade in agriculture, industrial goods and services amid cross-cutting disagreements between rich and poor countries over the concessions they need to make.
"We are all required to make effective cuts in subsidies to our farmers ... and in our tariffs and that goes for industrial tariffs among the emerging economies as well," Mandelson told the BBC.
Time is running out for negotiators to make progress as they begin fresh talks this month at the WTO's headquarters in Geneva, he said.
"They have to identify the flexibility they can offer and where they can converge," Mandelson told the BBC in an interview from Brussels.
"That means all of us, including the European Union, I'm not exempting us-so that we can achieve some sort of breakthrough this autumn."
"If we fail to do that then I am afraid that I can see the round going into the deepfreeze and it will be very difficult indeed to remove it and revive it in future," Mandelson added.
Trading nations launched a three-week drive Monday to break the long-standing deadlock in key agricultural negotiations at the WTO, with parallel talks on industrial goods also due to take place later this month.
Mandelson urged the United States "to clarify and to stabilise their negotiating position on trade distorting farm subsidies," which he said would be key to breaking the deadlock that has dogged the talks for years.
"Only in this way in my view will the rest of the negotiations be unlocked," he said. "We are in a stalemate on this and I believe that the United States holds the key to unlocking it."
The Doha development round of trade liberalisation talks, launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, is aimed at cutting subsidies and import duties primarily to help developing nations to take advantage of expanding global trade.
WTO members are at odds over the extent of new cuts in barriers to trade in agriculture, industrial goods and services amid cross-cutting disagreements between rich and poor countries over the concessions they need to make.
"We are all required to make effective cuts in subsidies to our farmers ... and in our tariffs and that goes for industrial tariffs among the emerging economies as well," Mandelson told the BBC.