By Daisy Ayliffe - 25th April 2006
The EU is prepared to give more ground on agriculture if WTO also partners make further concessions.
Addressing journalists on Wednesday, EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said there is still move for maneuver on agriculture.
"The EU will be prepared to further enhance our current agriculture offer…If the US is similarly willing, as reports indicate this morning, to negotiate further on its agriculture offer, this is an important advance. I welcome it," the British commissioner declared.
"I will waste no opportunity to test this willingness in the coming period.”
Speaking after a weekly commission meeting where WTO negotiations came under the spotlight, Mandelson acknowledged many of his colleagues were losing confidence in the troubled trade round.
"Not surprisingly, considerable concerns were expressed about the chances of reaching an agreement.But we are not going to give up on it now," he said.
The US and other countries have long been pushing the EU to go further with its offer of cuts farm import tariffs.
But Brussels says its farm offer is ambitious and others are to blame for the stalemate.
“The US made a respectable offer last September but it does not address the scale of the 2002 US Farm Bill. Spending this year is still rising and their proposals would allow them to actually spend more on subsidies after Doha,” Mandelson argued.
US trade representative Rob Portman, who is due to take up another Washington post, and his expected successor Susan Schwab will visit the WTO in Geneva next week in a bid to keep the talks moving.
Last week, WTO members decided to give up on an April 30 deadline for agreement on formulas for cutting tariffs on farm and agricultural goods.
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