A Real Deal?
January 11, 2007
Although often given up for dead, there are indications that the Doha round of trade talks could be resuscitated as trade representatives from the EU, the US and Japan say they are ready to go back to the table.
On Wednesday, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and his Japanese counterpart, Akira Amari, said they were committed to "an early and ambitious final agreement in the Doha world trade talks" in a statement released by the EU Commission, the European Union's executive arm.
Amari's visit to Brussels was the latest in a series of meetings between top trade representatives to breathe life back into the trade talks aimed at lowering barriers on world trade. The five-year talks all but collapsed last July.
US stepping up
US Trade Representative Susan Schwab will meet the director general of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy, on Friday amid speculation that a deal is close over the stalled trade negotiations.
Schwab will discuss the current impasse with Lamy, the US mission in Geneva has confirmed to the AFP news agency, following talks in Washington earlier this week with Mandelson.
Her talks in Geneva follow discussion with top trade officials from Brazil, Australia and India, as well as with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the presidency of the EU and the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations.
Schwab is expected to continue her discussions with other trade officials at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, which runs from Jan. 23 to Jan. 28.
Five years of failure
The WTO suspended the Doha round last year in July after negotiators from six major countries, including the United States, EU, Brazil and India, failed to reach agreement after five years of talks.
The round, launched in the capital of Qatar in November 2001, is at an impasse as Western and developing countries remain split on issues such as agricultural subsidies and market access.
Developing countries want lower tariffs on their agricultural exports to US and European markets while industrialized nations seek greater access to developing and emerging nations for their industrial services and goods. The European Union also wants the United States to cut subsidies to its own farmers, a move which Washington has resisted.
The US has called on the Europeans and some big developing countries, such as Brazil, to cut tariffs further on agricultural imports.
The talks were launched with the aim of alleviating poverty and boosting the global economy. But if agreement is not reached in the next few months, there is a risk of years of further delay. Experts say failure could hurt confidence in the global trading system and trigger a surge of disputes, particularly over agriculture, which has been the main sticking point.