WTO talks moving in wrong direction: Mandelson

HONG KONG – European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said on Friday that global trade liberalisation talks here were moving in the wrong direction.”The emerging direction of the meeting is worrying.

In the main trade boosting areas of the discussions, the level of ambition if anything is going backwards,” Mandelson told reporters at 149-nation World Trade Organisation conference. “I do not want to contemplate a failure at Hong Kong …but equally I see no point in an outcome here that simply locks in low ambitions, diminishes benefits for developing countries and falls short of our responsibilities to the global economy,” he said.”I would find difficult to sign up to such a rolling back of ambitions.That’s not what we need at this stage in the round so I think (all) of us are going to think long and hard before this meeting ends on Sunday.”Mandelson reiterated the EU had done its part with an offer to cut barriers in farm trade and now wanted to see others respond for the sake of an overall accord.”It’s hard to see where progress can be achieved in Hong Kong if the talks continue in their present direction,” he said.He urged the United States to tackle what critics say are disguised subsidies enabling US farmers to offload produce in poor countries in the form of food aid, undercutting the developing world’s agriculture sector.He also said Australia, Canada and New Zealand should shake up agencies that deal in key farm goods which are accused of giving their producers an unfair advantage on the global market.What we need to see are those other countries’ (subsidies), presently tucked away in their pockets, being …put on the table so that we can have a proper parallel negotiation about what needs to be done,” he said.US trade officials meanwhile repeated the charge that it was the EU that had to move, saying Washington was doing its best at the negotiations.The EU and US exchanges came amid a growing sense of frustration over the lack of progress at the talks, which must be concluded next year An Australian official expressed concern the six-day WTO ministerial meeting, which opened Tuesday, was losing focus while the G20 lobby of developing countries and the Cairns group of agricultural exporters, urged the EU and the United States to give some ground The WTO Doha Round was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001 with the aim of freeing up global trade and specifically helping developing countries but the negotiations have been dogged by the EU and US differences.The talks in Hong Kong were supposed to agree to the framework for an overall accord but now the most that is hoped for is some deal to help the poorest countries, with another meeting pencilled in for next year.”We came to Hong Kong with the aim of putting in place as good a platform as we could to take further incremental steps to put in place some building blocks to take forward the round, and to intensify our negotiations in 2006 so as to get to a high ambition outcome in the round as a whole,” said Mandelson.”Some seem to be losing sight of the strategic objectives as they make their tactical choices.”- Nampa-AFP”I do not want to contemplate a failure at Hong Kong …but equally I see no point in an outcome here that simply locks in low ambitions, diminishes benefits for developing countries and falls short of our responsibilities to the global economy,” he said.”I would find difficult to sign up to such a rolling back of ambitions.That’s not what we need at this stage in the round so I think (all) of us are going to think long and hard before this meeting ends on Sunday.”Mandelson reiterated the EU had done its part with an offer to cut barriers in farm trade and now wanted to see others respond for the sake of an overall accord.”It’s hard to see where progress can be achieved in Hong Kong if the talks continue in their present direction,” he said.He urged the United States to tackle what critics say are disguised subsidies enabling US farmers to offload produce in poor countries in the form of food aid, undercutting the developing world’s agriculture sector.He also said Australia, Canada and New Zealand should shake up agencies that deal in key farm goods which are accused of giving their producers an unfair advantage on the global market.What we need to see are those other countries’ (subsidies), presently tucked away in their pockets, being …put on the table so that we can have a proper parallel negotiation about what needs to be done,” he said.US trade officials meanwhile repeated the charge that it was the EU that had to move, saying Washington was doing its best at the negotiations.The EU and US exchanges came amid a growing sense of frustration over the lack of progress at the talks, which must be concluded next year An Australian official expressed concern the six-day WTO ministerial meeting, which opened Tuesday, was losing focus while the G20 lobby of developing countries and the Cairns group of agricultural exporters, urged the EU and the United States to give some ground The WTO Doha Round was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001 with the aim of freeing up global trade and specifically helping developing countries but the negotiations have been dogged by the EU and US differences.The talks in Hong Kong were supposed to agree to the framework for an overall accord but now the most that is hoped for is some deal to help the poorest countries, with another meeting pencilled in for next year.”We came to Hong Kong with the aim of putting in place as good a platform as we could to take further incremental steps to put in place some building blocks to take forward the round, and to intensify our negotiations in 2006 so as to get to a high ambition outcome in the round as a whole,” said Mandelson.”Some seem to be losing sight of the strategic objectives as they make their tactical choices.”- Nampa-AFP