Brussels, 12/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - Examining Doha negotiations two weeks after the Davos meeting (EUROPE 9354), Peter Mandelson informed trade ministers meeting on Monday in Brussels that the future of the round now rested in the hands of the US Congress. It is in fact that us legislative body that is expected give its approval (or not) to extending the Bush administration's negotiating brief, the Trade Promotion Authority. It is also Congress that will have to discuss then validate before the end of year, the draft US agricultural orientation law for the next then years, the Farm bill, as proposed on 31 January by the Bush government (EUROPE 9357). In this context, Mandelson did not hesitate describing the US's “defensive” position to the Council, which was now obliged to shift on agricultural subsidies. The Union, on the other hand, he said, was in a very good position for negotiations. He said that this was because it was alone in showing flexibility on its agricultural offer if its partners made new concessions: the US on agriculture and emerging G20 countries on tariffs on industrial products (NAMA)
The Commissioner for Agriculture, “Mariann Fischer Boel, and I are convinced that we can negotiate the current mandate without this turning into a unilateral commitment on our part”, said Mr Mandelson, stating that he had “not exhausted all possible room for manoeuvre” in Europe's offer to the WTO of October 2005. It would, therefore, be a “tactical error for our partners to see us hesitating”, he concluded, adding that it would “not be a solution” to allow a possible breakthrough towards a compromise on the details for agriculture and NAMAs to wait until summer or the autumn.
In the absence of sufficient concessions from the United States and the G20, the French Trade Minister was sceptical on Monday about the chances of success for the Round. Speaking to the Council, Christine Lagarde amongst other things stressed the “risk that all of the flexibility shown by the Union will be pocketed by its partners, without their putting anything on the table”. Speaking to the press before the meeting, Ms Lagarde said that she was somewhat concerned by the Commission's tactics: “since October 2005, we have always had to make more available, and now we have to help the United States, and I find this astonishing”, she said. Ms Lagarde also voiced her concern at the possible “postponement of the timetable to the month of September or October” announced by Ms Fischer Boel further to her trip to Washington. Against this backdrop, Ms Lagarde said that it may be better to “take a real break” in negotiations, in order to “review the parameters such as the environment, the role of the emerging countries and the end destination of large-scale agricultural production”, given the changes in the global geo-political situation since the Doha Round was launched in 2001. (eh)