The US is prepared to modify its offer on agriculture to break a deadlock and get a comprehensive WTO trade deal if other countries reciprocate, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said on Friday.
Speaking a week after a breakdown in Geneva talks on the Doha Round of the WTO, Schwab said that Washington -- which appeared isolated in the discussions -- would improve its offer if it helps secure an ambitious agreement.
"Last week, the United States signaled a willingness to modify our domestic support proposal, on more than one occasion. Did our trading partners not hear it?" Schwab told a news conference in Washington.
But she added that there was no significant response from other WTO members.
"The United States is simply not going with itself on cuts in domestic support for agriculture," she said.
In Geneva, no one came to Washington's defense as it came under blistering attacks from the EU and many developing countries over its refusal to review an offer from October last year to reduce farm subsidies, the meeting's key focus.
Schwab noted that at last week's discussions, "There was never a sense of energy or a buzz that comes with knowing there is an imminent breakthrough."
Despite the failure in Geneva, the US trade official said Washington was not giving up hope or looking for a watered-down "lowest common denominator deal -- which is quite frankly not what the mandate of Doha is all about."
Schwab said that although the EU indicated it was prepared to improve its offer on curbing its big farm subsidy program, the details failed to emerge.
"When we probed, we discovered the offer was both too vague and too full of loopholes to really get a sense of whether it was better than what was offered before," she said.
Schwab said that key emerging markets must also play a role in advancing a WTO agreement.
"We also learned much to my chagrin that there are some advanced developing countries that are questioning the benefits of open markets," she said.
"There are some developing countries ... emerging or existing powerhouses that want to hide behind the least developed and poorest countries," she said.
Although Schwab did not name specific countries for blocking an agreement, she noted, "The Brazils, the Chinas, the Indias of this world can and should be expected to participate ... including opening their markets to benefit other developing countries."
Separately, US President George W. Bush said that stalled WTO talks would be part of the agenda at the July 15 to July 17 Group of Eight summit in Russia.
"One way to make sure this economy of ours grows is to reject protectionism and be confident in our capacity to trade," Bush said at a news conference in Chicago.
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