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EU's Mandelson tries to give trade talks a push

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson sought to galvanize foundering multilateral trade talks yesterday, insisting the prevailing pessimism was "misplaced" and calling for political commitment to open markets from industrialized and middle-income countries.

His comments came in a column appearing in the Financial Times newspaper a day before some 30 trade ministers were to convene here in yet another bid to preserve the Doha negotiations aimed at reducing global trade barriers.

Mandelson acknowledged the "growing scepticism about the outlook for further liberalizing international trade."

"I understand the anxiety but I think the pessimism in misplaced. There is still time -- just -- to deliver on the original development-through-trade agenda envisaged in the World Trade Organization's Doha round of talks before negotiating fatigue takes over," he said.

The Doha talks were launched at a WTO ministerial meeting in the Qatari capital in November 2001.

But they have been dogged ever since by disputes between rich and poor countries over such questions as agricultural export subsidies and tariffs on industrial goods.

The goal now is to reach "a rough approximation" by July, according to Mandelson, of what a final agreement would look like before the next WTO ministerial meeting that will held in Hong Kong in December.

Mandelson said WTO members must now determine if they are prepared to offer "new, real business opportunities to economic operators from other countries, be it in industry, agriculture or services?"

But he stressed that "the need for greater openness applies not only to industrialized countries but to middle-income countries that maintain high levels of protection on farm produce or manufactured goods."
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