EU negotiator says WTO talks in trouble
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-17 10:27

The EU has refused to commit to any date, and it remained to be seen how it and other members would react. And since the WTO is a consensus-based organization, even one holdout could doom an agreement.

The banana trade reflects the difficulties involved in this approach. The Group of 77 — made up of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, many of whose populations are subsistence farmers relying on crops such as sugar, cotton and bananas — said they would reject any final deal that ended their preferential access to European markets.

"We will not be a party to any consensus that that does not recognize our right to grow bananas," said Charles Savarin, trade minister of Dominica. "We must preserve our traditional access to the EU markets."

The EU's system of tariffs and quotas favors Caribbean and African banana producers over large-scale growers in Latin America, preferential treatment the WTO has ruled violates world trade rules. But Savarin said ending that system would "destroy" their domestic banana markets.

Honduras, on the other hand, has said it will reject any deal that preserves the preferences.

The so-called Doha round of WTO talks was launched in 2001 in Qatar's capital to pay particular attention to poorer nations' trade concerns — chief of which is agriculture. But developing countries feel that wealthy nations have largely failed to fulfill that pledge.

Mexico's secretary of economy, Sergio Garcia de Alba, said the United States, EU, Japan and other rich nations sent delegates who weren't given enough flexibility to make deals.

"They sent their negotiators with papers, but also with straitjackets that don't let them move," Garcia said. "This week has turned more into a gripe session than a negotiation."

Mandelson lashed out at that criticism, saying the EU had "taken initiative" and offered generous cuts, including an average 46 percent reduction in farm tariffs.

He said developing nations seemed to expect the Europeans to settle for fewer opportunities in industrial trade while agreeing to make more concessions in agriculture.

"In other words, pay more to get less in return," Mandelson said. "We are going to stick to our position."

The U.S. delegation is anxious for progress because of the July 2007 expiration of so-called "fast-track" authority, which allows U.S. trade ministers to negotiate international deals with little congressional interference. Officials believe they need a WTO treaty finished by the end of 2006 to give lawmakers enough time to deliberate on it.

"This 2006 deadline is a real deadline," said Faryar Shirzad, the chief economic adviser for President Bush. "We really have to get work done."