Brussels, 20/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - There was a positive development on Wednesday 19 September at the headquarters of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva which augurs well for the reaching of a final agreement to conclude the Doha Trade Round. The United States delegation indicated that it was now prepared to negotiate on the basis of the compromise documents on trade liberalisation unveiled in July 2007 by the chairs of the farm negotiating committee and the industrial products (NAMA) negotiating committee, New Zealander Crawford Falconer, and Canadian Don Stephenson (see EUROPE 9471). The United States negotiators said they were prepared to enter talks on the basis of the annual figures set out in the agriculture negotiating document as long as the other countries also worked in accordance with the same parameters, explained Falconer on Thursday. He added that he had never heard them say that before and it was a highly significant move. To date, the United States had been refusing to reduce its domestic aid to farmers any further than $23 billion but Falconer's draft farm deal enjoins them to reduce their internal farm aid to between $12.8 billion and $16.2 billion a year. In July, Washington warned that cutting farm aid to around the $13 billion mark was out of the question.
Welcoming the United States' move on Thursday, the European Commission called on all other parties to follow suit and accept the Falconer-Stephenson compromise as the basis of viable negotiations. 'Unless the US is committed, then there is no future,' explained Peter Power, spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. The ball is now clearly in the emerging economies' court and the EU and the US are now expecting them to make substantial concessions in terms of access to their industrial markets.
At the WTO headquarters, Crawford Falconer is planning to have a break in the farm talks next week ahead of the publication of a new draft deal in October. The NAMA negotiations will resume on Monday 24 September under the chairmanship of Don Stephenson. (eh)