Brussels, 07/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - In Paris on Tuesday, European Commissioner Pascal Lamy declared that he wanted the United States and the developing countries to follow the European Union's lead and make proposals to reach a stage agreement at the WTO on trade liberalisation. "Today, the state of mind exists to relaunch negotiations. The objective is now to reach a mid-term agreement by the end of July", Mr Lamy told the delegation of the (French) Assemblée Nationale to the EU.
Mr Lamy indicated that he hoped that the meeting in Paris on Saturday, to be attended by the trade ministers of the US, Brazil, India and Australia, would help to move negotiations forward, having remained stagnant since the breakdown of the ministerial conference in Cancun last September. On agriculture, a huge bone of contention in the negotiations, he said that the EU "has moved over to an offensive position" since the spring when it proposed to remove export subsidies, which developing countries have attacked. But "this proposal is conditional", he pointed out, and stands as a quid pro quo for efforts made by the trade partners, especially the US, for instance to "regulate internal aid" granted to their farmers. "The Bush administration does not have a fantastic track record in trade, and there are convincing reasons for" it to see that it is "in its interests" to move forward with these negotiations, he commented. "Because afterwards, the silly season starts in August with the beginning of the American presidential election campaign", which will halt the negotiation process, he explained. "However, the idea that nothing could happen between now and spring 2005 does not please the four main players in the negotiations" (the EU, the US, the G20 emerging countries and the developing countries of the G90), added Mr Lamy, pointing out that negotiations would be based around five themes: agriculture, industrial customs duties, trade facilitation, services and development.
Speaking to the press in Brussels on Wednesday at the presentation of the Commission's communication on the GSP (see other article above), Mr Lamy stressed that he expected "concrete confirmation" that the other trade partners were "prepared to do as much as we have". "I am neither confident nor unconfident, and I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic" as to the possibility of reaching a framework agreement by the end of the month. "But I feel it is possible", said the Commissioner.