Make or break time for Doha

Talks on a world trade deal have entered what might yet prove to be a crucial last phase. Negotiators at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva are hoping that an agreement can be brokered in the coming four to six weeks.

Canada’s ambassador to the WTO, Don Stephenson, is expected to open official negotiations on market access for industrial products at the beginning of October. This week, he will hold informal consultations with negotiators.

Stephenson had delayed talks on industrial tariffs when negotiations re-opened this month after the summer break. Emerging economies had criticised his provisions on industrial tariffs, claiming that they would hurt their prospects of further industrialisation. Without concessions from rich countries on farm subsidy and tariff reductions, developing countries are unlikely to fling open their markets to industrial imports.

Farm subsidy and tariff cuts remain a thorny issue in the US. Pekka Pesonen, secretary-general of Copa-Cogeca, the European farmers’ association, said he doubted that the US would be able to match concessions being made by the EU. "They just don’t care," he said. "We have done our bit. We have reformed agricultural policy, so we have no market-distorting support. We have already delivered on the biggest part of the package."

He said that European farmers would suffer badly under plans to open EU markets to agri-cultural products. "Our beef markets will collapse with serious conse-quences to areas which only have extensive beef production as their last form of agriculture," he said. Ireland, France, Spain, the UK and Germany would be hit especially hard.

In New York on Monday (17 September), Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson played down continuing concerns about US farm subsidies. He argued that the current turbulence on financial markets showed the need for a deal that would "offer insurance against protectionism and recession".

Talks on a world trade deal have entered what might yet prove to be a crucial last phase. Negotiators at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva are hoping that an agreement can be brokered in the coming four to six weeks.