Brussels, 02/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Negotiators from the G4 group of nations (the EU, the United States, Brazil and India), namely EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, US representative Susan Schwab, Brazilian Foreign minister Celso Amorim and India's Trade Minister Kamal Nath, will meet in London on Saturday and Sunday, and in Geneva on Monday and Tuesday. In Switzerland they will have separate talks with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) director general, Pascal Lamy, to try to make progress in the Doha talks following recent G4 expert meetings (see EUROPE 9375). According to WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell, a mechanism will be set up to strike a deal on figures and other modalities for farm trade and manufactured goods (NAMA). Rockwell said it was a matter of waiting to see whether the deal would be possible. A spokesperson for Peter Mandelson, Peter Power, said the meetings were unlikely to make a breakthrough at this stage.
Washington expressed optimism this week about the potential for a deal, with Susan Schwab's deputy, John Veroneau, commenting in an address to the Swedish embassy in Washington on Thursday that the negotiators were now on a path that could lead to success. Sweden's Trade Minister Sten Tolgfors, who met Susan Schwab on Wednesday, said he thought things were moving in the right direction and it was the right time to bring the talks to a successful conclusion. Diplomatic sources quoted by Reuters suggest that the EU and the US had managed to agree on the broad outline of a farm deal. The stumbling block at this stage is reported to be India's reluctance to any further opening of its farm markets and resistance to reducing the number of exemptions for sensitive products, but New Delhi is expected to be more accommodating on NAMA and services. (eh)