Brussels, 10/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - After the failure noted on Wednesday after three days of intensive talks at ministerial level in London, then Geneva, between the representatives of the main negotiation groups and WTO trading powers (EUROPE 9065), the director general of the multilateral organisation that regulates world trade, Pascal Lamy, preferred to de-dramatise the situation on Wednesday evening by stressing the need for “recalibration” of the December Hong Kong conference objectives in order to avoid a “programmed failure”. “Meeting ministers in Hong Kong just to read reports would probably not heighten the credibility of the exercise”, Lamy told the press. ”There will have to be negotiations in Hong Kong. No-one has the slightest doubt about this”, he added. Pressed for time, the 148 WTO member nations will have to resign themselves to scaling down the objectives of their meeting. Mr Lamy's expectations were, however, quite clear: - the ambition was to conclude two-thirds of the Doha Round of talks in China for liberalisation of world trade. “An agreement on the arrangements for talks is not possible at this stage”, he admitted, specifying, however, that the “final objective does not change”. The Doha Round is first and foremost a round of talks devoted to development. “The views of member nations are along the same lines. There is not sufficient progress in the key areas, such as agriculture and access to the market for manufactured goods, to envisage an agreement in Hong Kong”, Mr Lamy continued, nonetheless expecting that progress will be made in December. “More detailed proposals are now on the table”, he added. The WTO director general, however, also mentioned other issues that pose a problem - cotton subsidies and trade preferences granted to the least developed countries.
Will these differences be overcome in December? The Union and the group of emerging countries, the G20, headed by Brazil, rejected the responsibility of blocking discussions on Wednesday. The Union refuses to make further concessions to offset the lack of credible offers, especially on the part of emergent states, in the NAMA (manufactured goods) and services fields. “Reciprocation by our partners in the areas of industrial tariffs and services is the bargain lying at the heart of this negotiation”, European Commissioner Peter Mandelson stressed on Thursday during a trade and poverty conference at the European Parliament in Brussels. “This is where movement now has to come”, he went on, adding: “Simply demanding more and more in agriculture without proper balance in commitments from others both in agriculture and outside agriculture, does not add up to serious negotiation or deal making”. The United States and the farm exporters of the Cairns Group (Australia, Canada and New Zealand) are also urging for an improved Union offer on agricultural matters without ensuring reciprocity as requested by Europeans. Mandelson said “we will not make a further agricultural offer before Hong Kong, although we will engage further in discussing the content of what we have offered and the appropriate responses by other partners”. ”Europe holds the key to negotiations”, the head of Brazilian diplomacy, Celso Amorim, confided to La Tribune on Wednesday, before going on to add: “It has extraordinary requirements of market opening from its partners but is not able to provide the equivalent in agricultural matters”. “Peter Mandelson is not engaged in serious negotiations and the whole process is useless. EU wants the moon”, he said in remarks reported by the Brazilian press.
As the ambitions of Hong Kong have been revised, a ministerial meeting may be organised in the first months of 2006 in Geneva to “come to a targeted agreement on all dossiers”, Mr Lamy said on Thursday. A climate of confidence must be re-created between member nations, he stressed, nonetheless insisting on the fact that: “The good news is that no-one wants to reduce the final objectives of the Doha Round, which proves the existence of political resolve”.