Brussels, 25/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - Despite the talks on 17-18 May in Brussels last week described as 'constructive' by all the G4 negotiators (the EU, US, Brazil and India), the lack of substantial new concessions in terms of domestic farm support from the US and market access for industrial products (NAMAs) and services from the G20 emerging countries in World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations is irritating EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson who, for the first time since the formal re-launch of talks in January this year, has threatened to scale back the EU's offer. The day after new French President Nicholas Sarkozy's tough line on trade (warning on Wednesday that he wouldn't 'sell off French agriculture at the lowest price'), Peter Mandelson spoke about Doha at a press conference in Portugal on Thursday, explaining that 'a deal is strongly in Europe's interest but not a deal on any terms… I intend to sustain offers that we have made… but those offers are conditional on others doing the same. If that doesn't happen, we will have no alternative but to review our offers. Europe is not going to be the sole banker of the Doha round…. Farm support reform in Europe must be balanced by reform elsewhere. If others cannot make a commensurate effort to match Europe's offers, then I will have no alternative to reviewing what Europe has put on the table.'
The G4 ministers reaffirmed their hopes and commitment on Friday to conclude the Doha Trade Round by the end of the year, but 'the gaps are still wide, both inside agriculture and between agriculture and industry and services,' explained Mandelson to the European Parliament on Tuesday. US Trade Representative Susan Schwab also talked about the continuing disagreements this week, but said that more important progress had been made on farm trade than on non-farm market access. The G4 ministers will be meeting up again in the second or third week of June at a time and place still to be determined. At the WTO headquarters in Geneva, the revised reference document on agriculture by the Chair of the Agriculture Negotiations Committee, Crawford Falconer, was expected as we were going to press. It will be unveiled by Tuesday at the latest. (eh)