Brussels, 20/11/2006 (Agence Europe) -Meeting in Hanoi for the 14th Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), the Heads of State and Government of the 21 countries in question- including George W. Bush of the USA, the Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, Hu Jintao of China and Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea- on Sunday launched an urgent appeal to get the Doha negotiations out of deadlock. "We acknowledge the need to take appropriate individual and joint actions, to achieve an ambitious and overall balanced outcome", the final press release states. It continues: "we should, therefore, spare no efforts to break the current deadlocks" and put the negotiations back on track with a view to an immediate conclusion. The APEC leaders, who are determined to resume negotiations "without delay", point out that it will be necessary to put together a global package of compromises covering market access for manufactured goods and services, trade rules and facilitation, but point out that agriculture remains the key to break the deadlock. "Everyone of us has committed to go beyond the current positions in key areas, which means to reduce agricultural support, which distorts trade more than anything else, create new access to the market in agriculture, make real cuts in industrial tariffs and establish new openings in the trade in services, whilst taking the sensitivities of the WTO members seriously", they conclude, stating that they are "prepared to take the leadership", but calling on the other WTO members also to "show their colours".
The appeal launched in Hanoi was also followed by the Finance Ministers and the governors of the Central Banks of the 19 largest global economies, meeting in Melbourne this weekend for the annual meeting of the G20 Finances. Warning of the "threat to global prosperity from rising protectionism in trade and investment", and stressing that the success of the Doha Round was "essential to securing freer, more open trade, reducing the risk of economic and financial stability, and achieving faster economic growth, development and sustained reductions in poverty", the G20 Finances pleaded in favour of a rapid resumption of negotiations.
Peter Mandelson says nothing is possible without the commitment of the US and India
In a speech in the Indian capital on Saturday, before the Hindustran Times Leadership Conference, the European negotiator at the WTO, Peter Mandelson, said that the Doha negotiations could be completed in 2007, but that nothing would be possible without a commitment on the part of Washington and New Delhi. The Trade Commissioner went on to reaffirm that an agreement on the agricultural plank, which is the cause of the deadlock in negotiations between the major players of the G6 (EU comme United States, Brazil, India, Australia and Japan) last July, would be possible only on the basis of the proposal of the emerging countries of the G20 (South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Mexico, amongst others). "There is no realistic alternative to resuming [the negotiations] where we left off in July on agriculture tariffs and subsidies. Any move away from the emerging consensus based on the proposal of the G20 will make it harder to find an agreement. And aiming below the target zone defined by this proposal will not be ambitious enough", Mr Mandelson insisted, criticising the demands of various WTO members as "a political fantasy", "that agricultural trade can attain, in one round of negotiations, the degree of liberalisation it has taken six decades to achieve for industrial products". In order to resume the negotiations, Europe is "prepared to lead" and to "offer a significantly larger market to the United States and to the other agricultural exporters", he said. The Trade Commissioner pointed out that the EU was prepared to improve its offer on the average reduction of agricultural customs duty, adding "more than 10 percentage points" to the 39% put on the table in October 2005, to come "within close reach" of the 54% called for by the G20. "However, nothing will be possible without an engaged US partner", continued Mr Mandelson, who stated that "without the United States, as so often the indispensable nation, the others can do nothing". "What the rest of the world is asking of the US is not indigestible. It amounts to a real terms cut of a few billion dollars in trade-distorting farm subsidy payments to farmers who are not near the breadline", he added. Mr Mandelson welcomed the signal sent out last week by his American opposite number, Susan Schwab, who stated that Washington remained committed to reach an agricultural compromise and acknowledged that greater reductions in American internal support were needed in order to achieve this. Lastly, welcoming the decision taken on 16 November by the WTO's Trade Negotiations Committee in Geneva, the Trade Commissioner called on his host country, India, also to show greater flexibility, particularly in the field of agriculture, in order to help restart the Round. (eh)