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To: J_Locke who wrote (34471)	7/29/2005 1:41:52 AM
From: regli	Respond to of 116555

Impatience Up on Stalled WTO Trade Talks forbes.com 07.28.2005, 04:07 PM Senior officials voiced frustration Thursday with the lack of progress in the Doha round of global trade negotiations, after WTO members missed a crucial deadline for a framework deal. The latest setback leaves little time for incoming World Trade Organization boss Pascal Lamy - who is holding informal talks with ministers here - to broker the comprehensive draft deal scheduled to be approved at a December Hong Kong summit. Thursday's U.S. Congressional approval for the new Central American Free Trade Agreement could give the global negotiations a belated boost. But ministers and trade diplomats now concede there is no chance of reaching a preliminary agreement by the self-imposed July 31 deadline. The mammoth Doha round is already at least two years behind its original December 2004 deadline for a new global trade treaty, intended to slash tariffs and other trade barriers - with particular emphasis on boosting access to industrialized markets for poorer countries. Delivering his final report to delegates, outgoing WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi warned that the future of the round would be "put into jeopardy" unless breakthroughs are achieved soon. Ambassador-level talks at the WTO's Geneva headquarters failed to produce a last-ditch blueprint in time for the planned framework deal to be thrashed out this month. "We have been slow," Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath told reporters. "I don't think there are any cards left in anybody's pockets." EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson also said governments would have to show more flexibility if the round was to succeed. "We cannot go on as we are with any reasonable chance of success," he said, reading from a prepared statement. Mandelson emphasized EU attempts to break what he called "the logjam in agriculture" - including a pledge last year to abolish export subsidies providing others follow suit - and called on the United States to reduce its payouts to farmers. Although EU farm support remains higher, Mandelson said, the Brussels subsidies are dropping steadily under 2003 reforms while payouts to U.S. farmers are increasing under legislation enacted the previous year. "In the United States, in contrast, spending may be relatively lower but (it's) rising as a result of President Bush's farm bill, and of course unreformed," Mandelson said. Any trade deal will require U.S. lawmakers to push through "a new, reforming, lower-spending U.S. farm bill in 2006-2007," he said. But U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Peter Allgeier rejected EU suggestions that the onus was on Washington to break the agriculture stalemate with new concessions. "Reform of domestic support is something that all of us who provide domestic support still need to do," Allgeier told The Associated Press. "It's not as if one member has completed everything and is sitting back watching the rest of us struggle with this." In spite of the setbacks, Allgeier said, Thursday's vote by U.S. lawmakers to approve the CAFTA, a new free trade deal with six Central American countries, had improved the prospects for the round. "It really puts a strong wind at our back as we go into the negotiations in September," he said. Allgeier's boss, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman, is due Friday in Geneva, where he is expected to meet with other senior trade officials as well as Lamy. The French incoming WTO boss and former EU trade commissioner has kept a low profile as he waits to succeed Supachai on Sept. 1, while holding a series of informal meetings in Geneva. Lamy lunched with Mandelson and Nath on Thursday but declined to comment when approached by the AP. "I'm not here," he said. The impending WTO succession is a delicate one, passing the top job from Thailand's Supachai to a candidate from the industrialized world. On Thursday, Supachai laid out his own recommendations for talks leading up to the Hong Kong meeting in December and appealed for all members to be included in talks - implicitly criticizing past deals struck by smaller groups of trade powers. "All these are issues on which Lamy will take a decision when he takes office," said Arancha Gonzales, Lamy's former spokeswoman, who accompanied him to Geneva. Gonzales' appointment to a senior position on Lamy's new Geneva staff is expected to be announced on Friday.