WTO chief presses alarm button over trade talks

GENEVA - World Trade Organisation chief Supachai Panitchpakdi says the time has come to press the alarm button over the lack of progress in the WTO's free trade talks.

"I have said before that my finger was hovering over the alarm button. Now I have pressed it," he told the talks' steering group, the Trade Negotiations Committee.
"I urge you all to hear the alarm and to act upon it," he added.

Leading trade ministers had called for accords by the end of July to clear the way for the full WTO virtually to wrap up its Doha Round of trade liberalisation negotiations at a ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December.

The round, launched in the Qatari capital in November 2001 and whose successful conclusion would boost the global economy, has already missed its initial end-2004 deadline.

The new target is early 2007, but for that to be realistic, ministers need to be able to gavel a blueprint in December with the most difficult issues resolved.

However, with the talks way behind schedule again, hopes of a so-called "first approximation" for Hong Kong being agreed this month have been dashed. All negotiators are aiming for in a final week of intensive discussions is to make some progress.

But Supachai and others fear that it may leave too much to be done in the northern autumn.

"In the beginning of the year, ministers set themselves objectives which clearly now are not going to be reached by the end of July," said WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell.

Officials said that negotiators would focus on agriculture over the coming days and only if there were some advance there, would it be possible to talk seriously about industrial goods.

Rich members, such as the United States and the European Union, under pressure to cut farm subsidies and tariffs to give developing countries more chance to compete, want opportunities for their manufacturing and service industries in return.

But there will be no further discussions of services before the end of the month.

In agriculture, the most that can be hoped for is a narrowing of differences on the formula for cutting tariffs, trade diplomats say.

The G20 alliance of developing countries, which is led by Brazil and India, put forward a proposal at a meeting of 30 trade ministers at Dalian, China, earlier this month which is serving as the basis for negotiations in Geneva.

But the European Union, which along with food importers such as Japan, Switzerland and Norway, has the highest tariffs amongst developed countries, is resisting concessions without some sign the United States is prepared to give ground on its farm policies.

Brussels, which has already said it is ready to get rid of farm export subsidies, wants the US to make similar commitments on the subsidy part of its export credit programme. It also wants US accord on cutting other farm subsidies.

But diplomats said that with the US administration struggling to win Congressional backing for its free trade accord with Central America - CAFTA - its negotiators in Geneva may not be in a position to give anything away.

- REUTERS