Brussels, 31/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - Although at the end of the WTO meeting in Geneva on 29 July (EUROPE 9714) Peter Mandelson said that he regretted the “collective failure” of those involved in the talks, the following day, Commissioner Mandelson indirectly implicated the US for being partly responsible for the breakdown in negotiations. In his blog, Mr Mandelson refers to the compromise technically prepared by the European agricultural negotiator and affirmed that, “when Lamy reconvenes the G7 negotiators at midday, the Indians and Chinese express reservations and the US rejects the proposal outright”. Mandelson adds that, “Europe, the Brazilians, and Australia argue that the 'Demarti' solution offers a way out of the impasse. But negotiators are not prepared to take it. It seems that the issue on which we have diverged is more important for some than agreement as a whole. Instead of reaching out for help to solve the problem, they are digging in”. Mr Mandelson regretted that “On her way to what can only be the final Green Room, the US negotiator, Susan Schwab, goes via the press room to get her rebuttal in first. The session that follows is tense and angry and Lamy does not allow it to go on for long. It is ban enough to be facing defeat in the last mile of such a marathon. It is worse to realise that some of the people across the table, instead of working for success, are in reality preparing for failure”. In Le Monde newspaper on 31 July, Mr Mandelson explained that the US wanted to recover every last dollar from the reduction in farmers' subsidies under the agricultural pillar. He also said that the EU had never sought to compensate reform of agricultural aid with easier market access in developing countries. The failure at Geneva is due to a disagreement on the special safeguard mechanism that would enable developing countries to temporarily protect themselves from begin inundated with imports. The US was afraid that this mechanism would be transformed into an instrument for limiting their agricultural exports to some markets, such as soya and cotton. (E.H./trans.rh)