WTO chief needs to save trade talks

World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy said Tuesday it was not too late to save the Doha round of trade talks, providing the United States, Europe and large developing states make new concessions on tariffs and subsidies. "Yes, it's doable," Lamy said. "But because it's difficult, it will need a bit more political traction on the three sides of the triangle."

Photo: WTO chief needs to save trade talks

The WTO director-general was speaking on the sidelines of an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development meeting in Paris, as ministers met for brief informal talks at the Australian Embassy, ahead of a formal session on Wednesday. The World Bank estimates that a new global trade treaty could boost global economic output by US$300 billion (230 billion).

But negotiations at the Geneva-based WTO are deadlocked, with the EU refusing to make further cuts to its agricultural tariffs; the United States resisting calls for a reduction to its domestic farm subsidies; and richer developing countries like Brazil dragging their feet over demands that they open their markets to more goods and services imports. Lamy and Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile both said they did not expect the Paris meetings to make any concrete progress on the Doha round. "This must be negotiated in Geneva," Vaile said. "We've all got to make concessions on this, and that's the true test of a decent outcome."

Susan Schwab, President George W. Bush's pick to succeed Robert Portman as United States trade representative, met EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson earlier Tuesday for the first time since her nomination. An aide later described the encounter as "a good productive meeting" that addressed WTO issues and touched on the Airbus-Boeing dispute. Both sides have said they would prefer a negotiated settlement to pursuing the litigation each has filed with the WTO, but Washington has refused to enter formal negotiations over the dispute unless the EU agrees first to halt government development funding to France-based Airbus. "These are talks about talks, these are not negotiations," Mandelson's spokesman, Peter Power, said after the meeting, reports the AP.

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