EU trade chief 'encouraged' ahead of WTO talks

Next week’s world trade talks in Doha are crucial for securing future agreements on climate change, food and energy security, according to statements made by EU trade chief Peter Mandelson, reported in the FT.

Mandelson said on Thursday that a trade deal would inject much-needed confidence to the flagging world economy.

The paper goes on to quote WTO head Pascal Lamy's comments that the Geneva meeting would be a “momentof truth” for the Doha round of talks, which has been ongoing since 2001.

However, the Guardian reports Mandelson as being “encouraged” that a deal will be reached next week.

The paper says a Doha deal on lowering tariffs and subsidies on farm products, manufactured goods and services could create €100bn in newtrade flows, mainly for the benefit of poorer countries.

But Chinese news agency Xinhua says hopes of a deal could be scuppered by the EU’s own internal wrangling over farm subsidies, which in the last weeks has seen French president Nicolas Sarkozy blast Mandelson for failing to secure reciprocal assurances from developing countries in return for cutting EU farm subsidies.

But the Telegraph quotes Mandelson as saying just ahead of talks that Sarkozy’s comments have actually caused people to rally around him, which the paper says will antagonise Paris by hinting that Sarkozy, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, is isolated.

In a second story, the Guardian says a decade-long dispute between the EU and Latin America over the Banana trade threatens to spill over into talks next week.

The EU offers preferential terms to former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, putting no tariffs on their bananas.

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