Trade talks ‘depend on EU moving’

Now is the time for a “protectionist” EU to take the lead in kick-starting world trade talks, argue senior UK parliamentarians.

A report published by the EU committee of the British parliament’s upper House of Lords is urging Brussels to move quickly to revive deadlocked World Trade Organisation negotiations.

The committee’s chairman Lord Radice told EUpolitix.com that with a new European Commission and US elections set for November 2004 the next few weeks would be “critical”.

“The Doha round hangs in the balance,” he told this website.

“Unless they can get agreement on a framework by the end of July, it is basically going to be put right back until after the American election and after a new commission is in place.”

"It may then never happen."

Talks to liberalise trade broke down in Cancun last September amid deep divisions focused on agriculture between the EU and US on one side and developing countries led by India and Brazil on the other.

Because of the EU’s key world trade role and notorious subsidies for agriculture, Radice, a pro-European centre-left peer, calls on Brussels to take the lead.

“This is the critical moment. And we think the EU, because it is one of the most protectionist systems for agriculture, has a major responsibility to come forward with an initiative,” he said.

Radice is calling on EU WTO negotiators, trade chief Pascal Lamy and agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler to firm up offers to scrap €3 billion of farm subsidies.

UK parliamentarians claim that a May 9 “hint” of movement on export subsidies needs to become a clear commitment to remove all by a specified date – alongside a move US, Canada, Australia and developing countries.

In a bid to improve market access on a global scale, Europe must put its own house in order and stop “hiding behind” protectionist countries such as India, argues Radice.

“I think that Lamy and Fischler must grasp that nettle if we are to get off the ground,” he said.

“If the EU makes these initiatives then there is a strong incentive on the US, Australia, Canada, and the G20 to make equivalent commitments.”

“It all depends on the EU moving.”

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