Brussels, 09/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - After fifteen hours of negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday attended by WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, ministers representing the main trading powers and negotiating groups on world trade liberalisation under the Doha Trade Round left on Wednesday afternoon with the bitter taste of failure in their mouths. The World Trade Organisation and its 148 Member States will now have to scale back its aims for the Hong Kong Summit in December this year if it is to avoid repeating the failure of the 2003 Cancun Summit.
After the meeting, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said: 'This is the first ministerial meeting of this kind to have been held since August 2004 when the negotiating framework agreement was put together. The discussions were largely devoted to the areas of industrial goods and services. Our meeting has been useful, not in narrowing the differences but in defining them. The gap is significant. This has been sobering for all ministers present here today. And, crucially, the important interests of the G90, more needy developing countries, are not being properly addressed. It is essential to preserve the development objectives of the Doha Development Round (DDR) and I have called today for a clear, itemised development package to be agreed at Hong Kong, as an early harvest, regardless of the other areas. In this light, I have assessed the prospects for the Hong Kong meeting in December. I have argued strongly this week for the keeping of our original aims. I was not in the majority. My fear is that in lowering expectations for Hong Kong, we will cause the overall ambition of the Round to fall. The EU will fight this because of our strong conviction that the developmental and global gains can only be realised through an ambitious outcome, in the form of freeing trade, progressively opening up markets and investing in the production and trade needs of the poorer developing countries. This remains at the heart of our thinking. However, at the present time, there is not enough consensus amongst the players about how we can reach this ambitious outcome. This may be due to real differences of approach or economic interests, or it may be due to negotiating tactics and brinksmanship being practiced,' regretted Peter Mandelson. He added: 'As far as the EU is concerned, I feel we have done everything we could reasonably be expected to do in agriculture to build bridges, building on the pledge on export subsidies of July 2004. We have made credible offers, described by Pascal Lamy as serious. I believe we have negotiated in good faith. We have put forward our contribution to making Hong Kong a success in our most recent comprehensive negotiating proposals of 28 October (see EUROPE 9059, Ed.), covering all areas of the agenda of the talks. We stand by this position. These moves quite simply have not been reciprocated by our partners in the areas of industrial tariffs and services. That's the bargain lying at the heart of this negotiation. But demanding more and more in agriculture, without proper balance in commitments from others in agriculture and outside of agriculture, does not add up to deal making.'
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson went on: 'This most certainly does not mean giving up, and I will not. What is at stake for the global economy is too important for that.'
Peter Mandelson explained: 'The EU will continue to strive, with others, for a way forward, and for an outcome in Hong Kong that significantly advances the negotiation, even if other reject the possibility of achieving full modalities. I do not want to see a process of brinksmanship being replaced by one of blamesmanship. We will not stop the WTO machinery and the negotiating chairs continuing their work to find compromise. We shall support Pascal Lamy's efforts, whose presence has already made a positive difference. We stand ready to participate in talks that we think are going to be meaningful and lead somewhere. And we will continue to engage informally with our negotiating partners.'
US farm secretary Mike Johanns tried to put a positive gloss on matters, saying that redefining expectations for Hong Kong was not a sign of crisis. He said it was simply being realistic and would make it possible to solve problems rather than blaming one another in December. US trade secretary Bob Portman backed Peter Mandelson's suggestion that the WTO partners agree in Hong Kong on a package of measures to boost developing countries' trade and leave unresolved issues for negotiation in 2006. At this stage, said Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim, chief negotiator for the emerging economies meeting under the G20 umbrella, we are in a very tight spot. Perhaps more time is needed, he said, adding that the G20 would be prepared to wait if that were the case. If a second meeting is needed, the G20 could consider that, he said, but it would certainly not agree to watering down the objectives of the Doha Round. Various WTO sources are already talking about another big WTO Summit at the start of next year, following the Hong Kong Summit in December.