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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pompsander who wrote (756927)	1/7/2007 11:56:47 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Mandelson Presses U.S. for `Political Commitment' on WTO Accord By Jennifer M. Freedman bloomberg.com Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson called for a ``strong new political commitment'' between the U.S. and EU to revive global trade negotiations that collapsed six months ago or risk delaying an accord for years. Mandelson will meet U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab in Washington tomorrow following talks between President George W. Bush and European Commission President Jose Barroso. The two trade officials are seeking ways to ``invigorate the talks with joint U.S.-EU leadership and use the narrow window between now and Easter to successfully complete the negotiations,'' the commission said in a statement. World Trade Organization negotiations broke down in July over disagreements on how to curb rich nations' aid to farmers. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has pressed larger governments to be more flexible, calling concessions by the EU, the U.S., India and Brazil vital to reviving the talks. While negotiators resumed technical work in October, Lamy said last month that governments have failed to offer ``real changes in numbers'' of what they're prepared to concede. Governments have already agreed, in principle, to the biggest cuts in farm commodity tariffs ever in global trade talks and to eliminate export subsidies for agricultural goods. The commission says it's willing to improve its offer by adding ``substantially'' to the 39 percent it submitted a year ago. ``Europe is ready to add more than 10 percentage points and get within close reach of the average farm tariff cut demanded by developing countries, 51.5 percent,'' the commission said. `Real Cuts' Needed In return, the EU wants the U.S. to make ``real cuts'' to trade-distorting farm subsidies to levels near to those demanded by developing countries. This would mean a budget cut of about $8 billion from current ceilings of $23 billion, according to the commission, the 27-nation group's executive arm. ``The quiet, constructive bilateral contacts of the last few months have made clear to us all the possible outline of a final deal,'' Mandelson said. ``We now need the added momentum of political leadership from the highest level.'' Trade talks may stall until 2009 unless negotiators clinch an accord before Bush's negotiating mandate from Congress expires in July, Lamy has said. Last week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez kicked off the administration's drive for a renewal of its trade negotiating authority, which compels Congress to approve or reject trade agreements that the president negotiates without amending them. A deal would inject at least $96 billion into the world economy, the World Bank estimates. It may also lead to the creation of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of new trade annually -- an important boost to the U.S. and European economies, the commission said. Failure to wrap up a trade accord would handicap a global economy already faced with rising inflation, oil-price volatility and a slowing U.S. housing market, the International Monetary Fund said in September. To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer M. Freedman in Brussels at jfreedman@bloomberg.net . Last Updated: January 7, 2007 04:10 EST