Brussels, 28/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday 26 January, on the sidelines of the Davos World Economic Forum, some 20 Trade Ministers from the main trading powers and the main WTO negotiating groups, met over an informal lunch at the invitation of Swiss Economy Minister Doris Leuthard to try to make a breakthrough on the most problematic Doha negotiations by the end of April. The aim was clear: to find general agreement on the modalities for liberalising trade in agriculture and industrial goods (NAMA) at a ministerial meeting in Geneva in April and, thereby, to avoid any further delay connected with the US presidential elections to achieve a comprehensive agreement by the end of 2008. “We decided we will have probably a ministerial meeting in April, “Leuthard said after the meeting. “The ministers will meet only when papers and the technical work can lead to solutions for the two main chapters of the negotiations” (Agriculture and NAMA: Ed.) and also for services, trade rules and facilitation, she also said. “The two or three months to come will be crucial for reaching a conclusion this year. I am hopeful we will be able to do it. Of course, it will cost some effort on the part of everyone,” said Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim. “We've agreed that, if the Round is going to be done successfully, it needs to be done this year. It needs to be done on President Bush's watch,” said European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, adding, “But if we are going to do a deal in that timescale, then that points to a necessary breakthrough, which only ministers can do, at Easter or thereabouts”. “We are much nearer to nearly there than last year,” commented WTO Director General Pascal Lamy wryly. The chief European and Brazilian negotiators' clear optimism was tempered, however, by their Egyptian counterpart Rachid Mohamed Rachid, who said, in an interview with Reuters that he doubted whether some main players, such as the United States, China and India, really wanted to reach agreement. Rachid also called for revision of the negotiations to take better account of circumstances which have changed since the Round was launched in 2001, such as the rise in the prices of foodstuffs. “The Doha Round is raising fewer and fewer expectations because every year we keep saying if we don't do it the whole world will collapse, and every year we don't do it and the whole world gets better,” he commented, with some irony.
In Geneva, WTO agriculture mediator Crawford Falconer will probably not bring forward his revised daft compromise on agriculture until the day after the WTO General Council meets on 5-6 February. At the Agriculture Council of 21 January, Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain said they feared that Falconer would propose ditching the special safeguard clause (which provides additional protection at borders in the event of imbalance on the internal market as a result of massive imports). They said the risks would be huge for sectors such as sugar, poultry, dairy products and beef. European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel acknowledged that, on this point, the EU was isolated in Geneva and a heavy price would have to be paid for retaining this measure. (E.H.)