Brussels, 14/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson, and his European counterpart Rob Portman, held intensive talks in Washington on 14 September, with a view to unblocking the thorny agricultural dossier under multi-lateral negotiations at the WTO, and thus allow the whole of the Doha Round to be relaunched, just three months ahead of the ministerial meeting of Hong Kong (13-16 December). The results of these talks (which were preceded on Tuesday by another joint meeting between Commissioners Mandelson and Fischer Boel with their American colleagues Rob Portman and Mike Johanns: see EUROPE 9025) were to be announced to the press by Mr Mandelson and Mr Portman jointly at the beginning of the evening. EUROPE will return to this tomorrow. On Wednesday, whilst the meeting is taking place in Washington, the director-general of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, called on both sides to make mutual concessions on agriculture, in order to unblock the negotiations in Geneva. "Both sides must move forward on a few parameters in order to allow the rest to become freed up. This is what everybody says they want to happen. And it is becoming urgent", Mr Lamy told the press in Geneva. "Everybody knows that in order to move the agricultural negotiations are long, we need American parameters on internal support (to farmers) and European parameters on market access (for agricultural products), over and above what they both need to do on support for export (...). I hope that they will succeed in this (in Washington this week), although it is sometimes the case that things which are agreed upon are not made public until a little later", Mr Lamy added.
On Tuesday evening, in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, Mr Mandelson acknowledged that it is absolutely vital for the United States and the EU to overcome their differences on agriculture, so that negotiations in Geneva can make real process. "If we are unable to agree on the basic approaches, then nothing will happen in the Doha Round, it's as simple as that", he said. Mr Mandelson stressed that he did not underestimate "the constraints imposed by national policies on either side of the Atlantic", but that it is " essential that we work to create common or co-ordinated political platforms". However, even though the Americans and Europeans are two key players in the negotiations, efforts must also come from other sides, he insisted, noting: "all parties, with the possible exception of the most vulnerable, must identify and put on the table commitments which will help the others to do the same". Although it is true that the EU will doubtless have to offer "substantial new market access in agriculture, leaving no product sector untouched", as the United States and also the developing countries are calling for, Mr Bush will have to put the promises he made about reducing subsidies at last July's G8 summit in Scotland into practice, said Mr Mandelson.