Brussels, 05/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - On the eve of the summit meeting between the 21 leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Sydney, Peter Mandelson confronted the capitals of the main players of the Doha Round, and Washington in particular, with the sad reality that talks on the liberalisation of world trade would fail if they all kept to their positions. In a BBC interview, the European trade commissioner sounded a note of warning saying: “I think the Round can be saved but, given the American electoral cycle (Ed: 2008 presidential elections), we are running out of time and we are therefore looking failure in the face”. He went on to say: “That is why the resumption of negotiations in Geneva and the very important APEC meeting in Sydney have got to give a much needed boost to these talks”. “There has to be a very serious engagement by the negotiators. They have to identify the flexibility they can offer and where they can converge. That means all of us, including the European Union - I'm not exempting us - (…) must achieve some sort of breakthrough this autumn. If we fail to do that then I am afraid that I can see the Round going into the deepfreeze and it will be very difficult indeed to remove it and revive it in the future”, Mandelson added. His remarks are, however, directly aimed at the United States which is invited to show flexibility and make greater cuts in domestic farm subsidies. “Only in this way, in my view, will the rest of the negotiations be unlocked”, he said, calling on Washington to “clarify and stabilise” its “negotiating position on trade distorting farm subsidies”. “We need the United States to send that powerful signal” to the rest of the world, he said, asserting: “We are in a stalemate on this and I believe that the United States holds the key to unlocking it”. “But if they don't”, he said, “I think I can only see the stalemate continuing and the talks facing collapse”. Mandelson's appeal follows that launched earlier by Australia that is to host the APEC summit this weekend. The APEC economic bloc includes several major actors of the Round: Canada, Chile, China, the United States, Japan, Mexico and New Zealand in particular. The agricultural dossier is on the agenda of the upcoming summit to be attended by US President George W. Bush. “We would like to see the US make a positive step towards reducing its farm support and that would send a very powerful signal to the rest of the world”, said Warren Truss, the Australian trade minister, on Tuesday after a meeting with his US counterpart, Susan Schwab. Canberra is seeking to convince Washington that concessions on the agricultural chapter would allow the United States to receive, in return, greater market opening to the G20 emergent countries for its manufactured products. (eh)