Japan pledges to support EU?in race for trade deal

Japan has promised its support for a renewed drive to restart stalled talks on a new global trade liberalisation deal.

Following a meeting with Japanese Trade Minister Akira Amari in Brussels on 10 January, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said: "Europe and Japan have agreed to join other World Trade Organiz-ation (WTO) members in giving fresh impetus to the Doha negotiations."

Hopes that negotiations on the so-called Doha development round could restart in earnest have risen following a visit to US President George W. Bush and the new Democrat leaders of the US Congress at the start of the week by Mandelson and Commission President José Manuel Barroso. Both Bush and Barroso pledged to ask their main negotiators to step up work on a deal.

The EU wants to see how much progress can be made with the new Democrat-controlled Congress before Bush’s trade negotiating mandate expires in June.

Senior-level officials are expected to meet and technical level negotiations are due to continue at the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva. There could be a meeting between trade ministers from the G4 group of countries (the US, the EU, Brazil and India) at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos at the end of January to assess the possibility for progress on agreeing cuts in import tariffs on farm products and subsidy levels.

Mandelson has hinted to his US counterparts that the EU could improve its offer to cut import tariffs to a level closer to the 54% demanded by some of its trade partners. But he has been warned by a group of EU farm ministers not to exceed his mandate.

Japan has promised its support for a renewed drive to restart stalled talks on a new global trade liberalisation deal.