Brussels, 13/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - Speaking on Thursday during a conference in Madrid, Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel called on the United States to present the most “convincing offers” at agricultural level to avoid a failure in the Doha negotiations. “The EU has made a very generous offer on agriculture (…) We keep moving in their direction. But they just won't come to meet us”, she stressed. Earlier in the week, Brazil's president, Lula da Silva, had also stressed the vital role of the United States. He says he counts on the US to continue the strategy towards resuming talks. Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, is to be in Europe next week to meet European negotiators and representatives of the Portuguese EU Council presidency. Mr Amorim will also be at the WTO headquarters in Geneva where, on Tuesday, the chairmen of the negotiation committees on agricultural and industrial tariffs, Crawford Falconer and Don Stephenson, will present their revised compromise texts on arrangements for trade liberalisation in agriculture and on non-agricultural manufactured goods (NAMA).
If no solution is found at WTO, APEC may envisage free trade area
Gathering in Cairns (Australia) on 5-6 July, the trade ministers of the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries (whose members are mainly key WTO players such as Australia, Canada, China, South Korea, United States, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Thailand and New Zealand), representing about half of world trade, said they would “demonstrate the necessary political will and flexibility” in multilateral talks. Only an “ambitious and balanced” approach would allow the Doha Round to be brought to a successful conclusion, they stressed in their final declaration, before adding: “This means we need to make cuts in agricultural and industrial tariffs which result in real and substantial improvements in market access, and real and substantial reductions in trade-distorting agricultural subsidies”. The APEC trade ministers also called for a study to be carried out on the establishment of a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP). Thus, a first report on economic integration of their countries was to be prepared for the APEC summit this coming September in Sydney. Susan Schwab, US Trade Representative, commented before the meeting that discussion on this project would probably intensify if the Doha Round failed. (eh)