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To: Knighty Tin who wrote (44871)	1/20/2006 1:53:38 PM
From: shades	Respond to of 116555

J USTR Portman: Hopeful Of Progress At WTO Meeting In Davos . WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman on Friday said he is hopeful that a gathering of trade ministers in Davos, Switzerland, next week will move international trade negotiations forward. About 30 ministers from countries influential in the Doha round of trade liberalization talks plan to meet on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Portman said he hopes members will agree to deadlines for having some negotiations completed by April 30 and part of the agreement done by July 31, as well as make substantive progress in agriculture and industrial tariffs. "The most important thing to come out of Davos would be to reaffirm those dates and to make some incremental progress in the core negotiating areas," Portman told reporters in a press briefing. The ongoing round of trade liberalization talks, launched in Doha, Qatar, four years ago, has floundered mostly due to disputes over removing barriers to agriculture trade. Developing countries complain the E.U. agriculture proposal would grant little new access, while the Europeans say they can't make new agriculture concessions without something to offer constituents on manufactured goods and services. A ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December achieved just enough to keep the talks alive. Portman said ministers can't afford to let the 2006 deadlines pass by without progress like previous deadlines. "Time's running short," Portman said, noting that President George W. Bush's trade negotiating authority expires in mid-2007. The Bush administration must have a complete Doha agreement by the end of this year to have enough time to push it through the U.S. Congress, he said. Portman said while in Davos he also expects to meet with Malaysian trade officials to discuss the possibility of a bilateral trade agreement. Portman said he is hopeful that the Bush administration will soon make announcements of new free trade negotiations. U.S. trade officials have said the most likely candidates for the next set of free trade agreements are South Korea, Malaysia, Egypt, and Switzerland.