By Daisy Ayliffe - 21st March 2006
EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson has insisted a successful WTO outcome is still possible.
Addressing MEPs on Tuesday, the commissioner said results would hinge on all players accepting concessions.
In a speech to the European parliament's trade committee, Mandelson acknowledged that negotiations appeared to be at an impasse.
“But I do not believe it needs to be,” he insisted. “I think it is important that each of us puts himself or herself in the shoes of the other.”
“It is about understanding where everybody stands and then seeing how our positions can be brought to meet in the middle in a way that brings sufficient gain to us all.”
In a meeting in London earlier this month, the British commissioner pinned hopes on narrowing differences ahead of an April 30 deadline.
Trade ministers set the April date looms for resolving differences over tariffs on agricultural products and industrial goods at last December's WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong.
But with the clock ticking the commissioner now recognises that “the time of incremental steps, small moves and small concessions, is over.”
WTO negotiators now need to deal with several issues simultaneously Mandelson warned MEPs.
“There is a limited number of cards left on the table and they are the big ones. They cannot be played in isolation,” he insisted.
Splits appeared as extensive as ever on Tuesday with negotiators on either side of the Atlantic insisting they will not budge first.
In an earlier address to MEPs on Tuesday, French trade commissioner Christine Lagarde blamed the US and large developing nations such as India, China and Brazil for threatening the “spirit” of the Doha round.
“We have reached a point where Europe’s question of access just is not an issue anymore,” she told the European parliament’s trade committee.
But across the Atlantic, Washington maintains that getting more access to the EU is essential to persuade developing countries to open up their agricultural sectors.
"This is tough stuff, this requires the EU looking at the French position. There will always be elements of our constituencies who would rather see no round," US trade representative Rob Portman told reporters last week.
WTO members aim to reach an overall agreement by the end of 2006.
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