Brussels, 24/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - Before going to Davos, where he will be on Saturday with around thirty of his counterparts for an informal meeting on working out a road map for concluding the Doha Round before the end of the year (EUROPE 9348), Peter Mandelson, examined negotiations at the European Parliament's INTA Committee (International Trade). The trade commissioner said that he was “cautiously optimistic” about getting a positive result for the Round in 2007. Mandelson indicated that, “After a period of uncertainty following the suspension of the negotiations last July, we now see renewed activity in Geneva and, most importantly, high level political engagement”. He also pointed out that during a European delegation visit led by José Manuel Barroso and himself to Washington, US president George W. Bush indicated that he was, “personally strongly behind a deal” for concluding the Round successfully. The WTO Negotiator-in-Chief added that, “we are into a new phase of activity which is likely to be decisive”. He repeated that, “There is a window of opportunity until Easter”. Mr Mandelson reiterated the fact that the expiration of the Trade Promotion Authority and the US government's negotiating brief were “looming” and, “without a renewal of TPA, a deal will be very difficult if not impossible”. Nonetheless, he did consider that control of the Congress by the Democrats did not constitute an obstacle to Doha.
The Commissioner said that the Davos meeting should provide an impetus to the current situation and, “send the political signal that the Geneva negotiating process needs to come full back on track in the near future”. He also stated that EU/US coordination was “far from sufficient”. Mandelson also called on the business community to provide a voice for restarting negotiations. He hammered home the fact that the Doha Round was not simply to do with agriculture.
It is, however, this aspect that has been paralysing negotiations since last July. The Commissioner for trade said that, “we need a deal that strikes the balance between the need to advance decisively on farm trade liberalisation through lower tariffs and the reduction and disciplining of trade distorting farm support, and the need to respect the reasonable agricultural sensitivities of WTO members, including in the developing world”. He also thought that the approach of emerging G20 countries is the, “centre of gravity towards which all sides need to move. If we can unlock agriculture then we will be able to move into the rest of the negotiation”. He affirmed that no final compromise will be possible as long as the G20 failed to make “adequate offers” on liberalisation of trade in manufactured goods and services.
The Commissioner for trade repeated what the WTO Director General, Pascal Lamy had stated on Tuesday (EUROPE 9350), “Even the deal currently on the table outstrips any previous multilateral trade round by a long way”. Mandelson then pointed out that a failure in the Round would lead to backsliding in the multilateral system and tarnish its credibility.
Paris counting on its solid position but Berlin wants to shift
Addressing the INTA committee a little earlier, the French minister for trade, Christine Lagarde reaffirmed France's opposition to new European agricultural concessions for relaunching the negotiations. In a reference to figures circulating in the press that indicated that he Union could agree to lower its customs tariffs on agricultural products by 54% (figures corresponding to G20 demands) as opposed to the 39% in the December 2005 offer, in exchange for a reduction in the annual ceiling in US domestic subsidies from $23bn to $17bn (EUROPE 9348), she hammered home the fact that, “figures that have been circulating in the press since Monday are improbable and therefore with improbable figures, a mandate is impossible”. Ms Lagarde met Mr Mandelson a bit later and said that this all involved “wild imaginings”. She did, however, assure the European Commissioner and MEPs that, “the negotiations brief given to me is clear, I will follow it in a disciplined way”.
In the event of an EU/US compromise, which has largely been ruled out by the Commission, France is increasing its warnings to the main European negotiator that it will oppose any new agricultural concessions. Germany, which is acting president of the Council, unequivocally voiced its support for doing everything to get things moving. Addressing the INTA committee on Tuesday, the German secretary of state for the economy, Joachim Wüermeling, said that, “Our priority is Doha. We will do all we can to ensure a start-up in negotiations that will allow for a possible extension of the US negotiating brief”. Germany, which depends on 40% of its exports going to emerging countries particularly wants “an opening up on the industrial and services markets”, explained Wüermeling”. (eh)