Brussels, 22/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - Peter Mandelson believes the Doha Round negotiations have reached “a new phase”. “Members (of the WTO) now realise that a new EU agricultural offer is not currently in the making, and most importantly that the success or failure of the Doha Round does not, and cannot, depend on this single factor only”, said the Trade Commissioner on Tuesday, speaking to the international trade committee of the European Parliament, chaired by Spanish Socialist Enrique Baron. Although the meeting of the G-6 (EU, United States, Brazil, India, Australia and Japan) in London on 11 March did not make any major breakthroughs, it “was a useful meeting. Our aim was to narrow further the gaps between our positions on core issues” and “we achieved some convergence on the structure of the (subsidy reduction) formulae”, he said. He said that the United States had shown readiness to engage on the issue of domestic support in agriculture, but maintained its demands in agricultural access from the EU and developing countries. Brazil and India accept that “this cannot be a Round for free for themselves”, but “their rhetoric does not, at present, match the contribution they need to make”. The leaders of the advanced developing countries - the G-20 - are still reticent about adopting a “sufficiently ambitious” formula to secure cuts in applied tariffs across the board. Before any movement on their part, they “want to know more precisely what they will get in return in agriculture from us and, perhaps even more from the US”. Finally, Brazil and India are reticent about lowering tariffs on industrial goods (NAMA), because they “fear China's capacity to take the greatest advantage”. Mr Mandelson re-affirmed the EU's commitment “to continue to play a constructive role in the Round, including on agriculture, but we need to see real cuts in industrial tariffs - at less than full reciprocity between developed and developing - and we need to preserve the Single Undertaking outside of agriculture and industrial goods”. Welcoming the latest Carnegie endowment study on “Winners and Losers” in the Doha Round which shows that the bulk of the benefits of agricultural liberalisation are limited to developed countries and countries like Brazil, Argentina and South Africa, Mr Mandelson called on the EU's key partners to move forward together on all sections of the negotiations to create a multilateral consensus. “The time of incremental steps, small moves and small concessions is over,” said Mr Mandelson, stressing that WTO Director General Pascal Lamy had “a crucial role to play” - he could propose a draft compromise himself, if WTO members are unable to decide on their arrangements by 30 April - and that “the initial negotiating breakthrough can only be made by a relatively small group of key players”.
Although given strong support by the trade committee members, the EU's principal negotiator at the WTO nonetheless sought to defend the Commission's position on agriculture, after French Trade Minister Christine Lagarde had, a few hours previously, given the French view (see EUROPE 9156). In response to a question from James Hugh Allister (non-attached, UK), Mr Mandelson gave assurances that that he had no intention of making any offer or the merest commitment on a further reform of the CAP in these negotiations which would be harmful to EU farmers and rural communities. He added that it was not in the interests of European or world agricultural balance, and that he had no intention of moving beyond the parameters he had spoken of. Replying to the British Green MEP Caroline Lucas on reciprocity between tariff reductions in developed and developing countries, Mr Mandelson gave assurances that the EU remained ready to accept “less than reciprocal” customs duty reductions from developing countries involved in a general lowering of customs duties, from which the least developed countries (LDC) were exempt. On the question of duty- and quota-free access to developed and developing countries' markets for LDCs (development package set at 97% in the Hong Kong Ministerial declaration under pressure from the US and Japan, which were not keen to open their markets to LDC goods), Mr Mandelson promised Mrs Lucas and Helmuth Markov (GUE/NGL, Germany) that he would do all in his power to negotiate a greater percentage.