Brussels, Aug 12: The European Commission on Monday the chances of reaching a deal this week with the United States on the principles of liberalising farm trade ahead of key world trade talks next month looked “moderately optimistic.” The EU’s executive has been studying a proposal from its major trading partner which aims to break the long-running deadlock over farm trade ahead of next month’s key session of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Cancun, Mexico.
“There are no results so far. There were intensive talks and lots of contacts over the weekend at a political level,” said Commission spokesman Thorsten Muench at a daily news briefing. “We are moderately optimistic to reach an agreement by the end of this week,” he told reporters.
The Cancun meeting is vital to the success of the Doha Round of global trade talks, due to finish at the end of ‘04, and agriculture is widely seen as the key stumbling block. Unless WTO countries can agree on a plan for reducing domestic farm payments, export subsidies and agricultural tariffs, there is little hope for other areas of the talks such as services, manufactured and consumer goods.
Since a meeting of trade ministers in Montreal late last month, attended by around two dozen WTO country representations, US and EU officials have been locked behind closed doors to see if they can agree a framework for freeing up farm trade. Bureau Report