Brussels, 17/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - Addressing the UN Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Monday 17 September, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson confirmed the importance, in terms of global economic gains, of concluding the multilateral Doha Round trade negotiations, which continue to founder on the agriculture chapter. “The Doha negotiations have made more progress than people realise. While everybody has said that the talks are failing they have, in fact, been moving forward and we nearly have a deal on the key issues,” he said. “There are draft texts on the table, others are not far behind,” he went on, urging all the member countries to look beyond their respective immediate gains and losses that would follow on from the conclusion of an agreement. He laid great emphasis on the positive impact of an agreement on the global economic and trade system, especially in this time of “turbulence in the financial markets,” which has made global economic prospects more opaque. That, after all, he said, was what Doha was ultimately about. “We focus on a few tonnes of poultry imports here (Ed: in the EU), or a couple of billion farm subsidies there (Ed: in the United States.) or half a point off an automotive tariff somewhere else (Ed: in emerging countries.),” said Mandelson, going on, “But every bit as important is topping up economic confidence and strengthening the rules that bind world trade relationships”. “A Doha success would mean making current levels of openness largely irreversible. Doha is like a ratchet in the global economic machine that will stop it sliding backwards,” he argued. (eh)