Brussels, 04/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, already in difficulty internally over anti-dumping policy (see EUROPE 9614), would seem to be being overcome by weariness on the multilateral negotiations front. Meeting in Lesotho on 29 February with the trade ministers of the least developed countries (LDC), he found it hard to conceal his pessimism on whether or not it would be possible to reach the expected compromise on trade liberalisation modalities at the ministerial meeting in Geneva in April. He spoke a “high risk of failure” of the discussions “unless negotiators restore balance to the different strands of the negotiation” on agriculture, industrial goods (NAMA) and services. He warned that this would be “the worst possible signal to be sending as we search out solutions on climate change”, and he feared that the first victims would be the least well-off countries. If there were to be an agreement, the LDC would benefit from a free round: they would not have to make any concessions and would have duty-free and quota-free access to the markets of the rich and emerging countries. He stressed that this was the last chance to get an agreement, and he said that, with the current high prices for agricultural goods and the US electoral timetable, this was the opportunity to reach an agricultural agreement. His Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim was more optimistic, when he spoke, the same day, of there being a “real chance” of agreement in 2008. Brazil's attitude is one of the main sources of Mandelson's annoyance as he vainly urges the emerging countries to open their industrial and service markets. “Brazil has not clarified its position on what it is prepared to concede. Mandelson is getting tired of not knowing what Amorim has up his sleeve,” said a source in Geneva. Apart from the emerging countries failure to move, Mandelson, internally, also has to face the sharpened reservations of most EU member states, which feel they have already gone far enough in the agricultural concessions made. Also in Southern Africa at the weekend, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy did not appear surprised that Mandelson's position was stiffening. “The idea of the distance still to be covered before the end is tactically worked by each negotiator depending on the cards he has in his hand. We are at a turning point. It is perfectly normal that intelligent negotiators take this kind of stance,” he said. Lamy also stated that an agreement before the end of the year was feasible. Several sources in Geneva agreed, however, that, for that, a ministerial meeting would have to take place in June or July, and not April. (E.H.)