EU hoping for Bush support on trade agreement

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is meeting US President George Bush today in an attempt to jump-start global free trade talks that collapsed in July over deep differences on farm subsidies.

Barroso, before leaving for Washington, said that “the moment of truth” for settling World Trade Organisation negotiations “is fast approaching, and the US holds the key to making a deal possible in 2007. The alternative, a delay of several years, would come at a high price for all”.

The negotiations broke down in July in a disagreement over how much the European Union, US and other wealthy countries should reduce the farm subsidies and tariffs that poorer nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America say prevent them from selling their agricultural goods abroad.

The US was criticised for refusing to cut the government handouts it pays American farmers.

Washington partly blamed the standstill on the European Union for refusing to make deeper cuts in tariffs on agricultural imports.

Bush, speaking of the trade talks and of Barroso’s visit, said on Thursday: “I believe we can get a deal done. It’s just going to take a lot of will and a lot of hard work to do it. … Trade is the best way to help poor nations develop their economy so that people can realise the benefits of wealth moving throughout their society.”

Barroso will also meet the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, who is second in line to the presidency after Vice President Dick Cheney, and with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Both are Democrats.

Supporters of a trade deal are eager to find a resolution to the impasse. The Democrat-controlled US Congress will consider this year whether to extend Bush’s authority to negotiate a trade deal that can be submitted to Congress for a simple yes-or-no vote without amendments.

The loss of the so-called “fast-track” authority, set to expire in July, would make it much harder for any treaty to gain US congressional approval, without which any global trade deal would be meaningless.

Barroso is also expected to push Washington to sign up to international efforts to combat global warming.