WTO bids to agree trade deal
World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy told senior diplomats on Tuesday that the end-of-year deadline for agreeing a trade deal can still be met if all 149 WTO members work hard.
On the negotiating table is an offer by the EU to cut by 36% the barriers which keep out farm produce imports.
EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson has pledged to stay within this EU negotiating remit. But he is willing to move further if trading partners such as the US make similar compromises.
This has alarmed pro-farmer member states such as France, whose Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau has said he would prefer that trade talks fail, rather than reach an agreement that would raise new questions about the Common Agriculture Policy.
He ruled out new concessions on EU agriculture in the WTO talks, and said the EU’s 36% offer is the limit.
Austrian Agriculture Minister Josef Proell, whose country holds the EU presidency, said the EU had already made enough concessions, and it was now up to others to make offers.
But some EU finance ministers are pressurising Mr Mandelson to back down on agriculture in the WTO talks.
British chancellor Gordon Brown has put himself on a collision course with France, by demanding that reform of the CAP be put back on the agenda.
He argued last week that agricultural subsidy spending is more than six times the global aid budget, and poor countries are being hindered by lack of access to rich countries’ markets.
