Geneva WTO talks hope to break deadlock

Ministers gathered in Geneva at the weekend for talks on a global trade pact, but it was clear this week's make-or-break meeting would not be easy as trade powers tussled over intractable issues in agriculture.

Ministers from three dozen countries are meeting at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) today to seek a breakthrough in the WTO's seven-year-old Doha round to free up world trade.

Various alliances among the WTO's 152 members, from the Cairns group of food exporters to the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries were due to meet yesterday to plot their strategy.

Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim denounced misinformation and double standards pervading the talks, and said much work was still needed, particularly in farming, to prevent the meeting from ending in failure.

"There is a whole array of questions in agriculture that have to be solved, and we don't know how they will be solved or if they will be solved," Amorim told a news conference after meeting WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy. "A big effort is still needed in agriculture."

Amorim homed in on what is likely to be one of the critical issues – the level of farm support in the United States – as ministers haggle over tariff and subsidy cuts. He dismissed talk of a 70 per cent cut in US farm subsidies – which developing countries say crowd their own farmers out of their markets, noting that the lowest new proposed level would still be double what Washington is currently paying.

Ministers at the talks, which focus on the core areas of agriculture and industrial goods, will be watching keenly to see whether US Trade Representative Susan Schwab makes a new offer on farm subsidies.

On Friday, the Senate Agriculture Committee told her it would not back a deal that cuts US farm subsidies more than it opens foreign markets to American farm exports.

The new US Farm Bill, which raises support, has led many WTO members to doubt Washington's good faith in the talks.

Amorim also criticised the way rich countries were unwilling to cap their farm tariffs, while insisting on big cuts in developing country industrial import duties.

But Japan, which has one of the world's most protected farm sectors, ruled out any ceiling for tariffs.

"Japan has consistently taken the position that a tariff cap is not appropriate due to the specificity of agriculture in each country and there has been no change in Japan's position on this question," said Agriculture Minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi after meeting Lamy.

Amorim warned the United States and European Union against "overloading" a deal on developing country industrial tariffs with new demands on "anti-concentration" and "sectorals".

These refer to proposals to prevent developing countries from shielding entire sectors from market opening, or encouraging them to enter voluntary deals to eliminate tariffs in some sectors. But a key US business lobby, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), wrote to Lamy at the weekend telling him that an agreement must include such elements.

"Without, it will be nearly impossible for the business communities in the United States and European Union to rally support for the final agreement," NAM President John Engler said.

Ecuador, the world's top banana exporter, said it wanted to negotiate further, and believed a deal could be reached.

Failure to defuse the bananas dispute could derail the entire round, as it would then become part of the farm talks, pitting the Latin Americans against the ACP countries.