Goff confident of WTO talks progress

Phil Goff

Trade Minister Phil Goff says achieving deadlines to progress WTO talks is daunting but ministers at the Davos trade meeting have expressed a determination to get there.

Goff has been at the meeting of trade ministers in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos which approved a programme to meet deadlines for the Doha round of trade talks to be finalised this year.

"Achieving this will be a daunting task, with major decisions still to be determined after the meeting in Hong Kong last year," Goff said.

In Switzerland the ministers from 30 World Trade Organisation (WTO) states renewed a pledge for a pact on lowering barriers to commerce in farm and industrial goods by the end of April.

Reports said there was less friction between the European Union, the United States and developing states such as Brazil, which had swapped blame for a lack of progress on a free-trade treaty that could boost growth and end poverty for millions.

Goff said key players accepted they needed to improve what they had offered.

"Going into this meeting we had a standoff.

"No one was ready to move until others put up better offers," Goff said.

"Now we have acceptance for the US, EU, Brazil and other countries that the only realistic answer is for key players to show their cards at the same time. This means making new offers in concert across the critical areas in the negotiations."

Ministers unanimously accepted the Doha mandate to promote development and remove trade barriers and obstacles.

Goff said there was no certainty but the Davos meeting improved confidence.

"There was agreement that negotiating countries needed to be more flexible and to aim for measures to promote trade that were ambitious.

"Clear timelines for decision-making were approved. This represents good progress and a better outcome than many were expecting."

US trade representative Rob Portman said consensus was achieved for the first time, while EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who has been at loggerheads with major exporters such as Brazil over agriculture, said he noted greater flexibility.

"I did feel encouraged by what I heard around the table," he said. Earlier he had warned that the EU had nothing to lose if talks collapsed.

A draft trade deal had been due at Hong Kong in December.

But the WTO opted for a delay because differences were too deep, particularly in agriculture, where the European Union has been under intense pressure to make more concessions from both Brazil and rich exporters like the US and Australia.

- NZPA