Brussels, 05/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - Speaking on Tuesday before the members of the European Parliament's International Trade Committee (INTA) chaired by Helmut Markov (GUE, Germany), Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson made a vibrant appeal to the leaders of the G8+5 (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and Russia plus the 5 large emerging countries: South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Mexico), who are to gather in Heiligendamm on 6-8 June to agree on compromises to allow the Doha talks to be concluded in the next two months, thus preventing the round from being delayed several more years. “The political stakes are very high. This seems to be leading negotiators, as we approach the deciding moment, to harden their positions rather than offering compromise and flexibility”, he told the members of the INTA committee. “I believe we need the personal and active engagement of the leaders of the major economies to authorise the compromises to be made on all sides that will deliver a deal that is ambitious, balanced and fair”, the commissioner went on to say, adding: “If we cannot reach a deal on trade today, what chance will we have of reaching collective agreement on the even more difficult issue of climate change in the future?” “I cannot expose the EU to an approach of one-side flexibility”, he went on, recalling that it is essential that the “US should accept genuine cuts and disciplines on trade-distorting domestic subsidies in agriculture (…) and that emerging economies, such as Brazil, India and china, should be prepared to open up their markets for industrial goods - even if not to the same extent as developed countries”. He sounded a note of caution saying: “The EU is prepared to do a lot but it is not prepared to go to the limit of its ambition if others do not do the same. If others make meaningful contributions we must be ready to deploy the flexibility we have been indicating since July 2006, notably on agricultural tariffs. But if the others fail to make meaningful commitments, we shall have to review our position”. Mandelson repeated that the “Union will not be the only banker at the Round”. The trade commissioner also expressed pessimism about the possibility of concluding the round of talks once the window of opportunity in June and July is closed. After this period, attention will focus in the United States on the election of the future US president and, Mandelson concluded, he believes it will be necessary to wait until 2010 to see whether negotiations will have failed this summer. (eh)