A global trade accord could still be struck within five to eight months despite the collapse of World Trade Organisation talks last week, the top US and Brazilian trade negotiators said at the weekend.
Susan Schwab, the US trade representative, and Celso Amorim, Brazil’s foreign minister, said they would press others to see what could be done to put the Doha round talks back on track.
Speaking after meeting Mr Amorim in Rio de Janeiro, Ms Schwab said: “Brazil and the US are leaders in this effort to help revive the Doha round, and we see our meeting today as the beginning of a process that we hope our colleagues from other countries will also support.”
“We believe it is possible, but it won’t fall from the sky,” Mr Amorim said.
Pascal Lamy, the WTO director-general, suspended the Doha negotiations last Monday after six WTO members – the US, the European Union, Brazil, India, Japan and Australia – failed to bridge their differences over farm subsidies and tariff cuts.
An interim deal on these issues was needed to allow negotiators enough time to wrap up the rest of the complex talks by the end of the year. This would have enabled the package to be submitted to the US Congress for a yes-no vote before the administration’s negotiating authority expires in mid-2007.
Although most trade experts believe that authority is unlikely to be renewed, some suggest that a short-term extension might be possible if a Doha accord was in the offing. “If we are not able to do it [reach a deal] in the next five to seven months, or six to eight months, it’s hard to imagine after that not losing a lot of momentum,” Ms Schwab said. That could mean waiting two or three years and perhaps not doing the deal at all, she added.
Ms Schwab will be travelling to Australia in September for the 10th anniversary meeting of the Cairns Group of agricultural exporters – a meeting to which Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, has also been invited.
Writing in the FT today, Mr Mandelson also urges a return to the negotiating table.
■US President George W. Bush and Tony Blair, UK prime minister, have agreed to make “one final effort” to revive stalled global trade talks, Mr Blair said on Sunday, voicing hope it could take place within weeks.
The two men reached the decision when they met at the White House on Friday, Mr Blair said in the text of a speech he was due to deliver to News Corp executives in California last night.
