US eyes Doha advance on trade talks

By Stewart Fleming

Date: 09/02/06

US deputy Trade Representative Susan Schwab expressed the hope on Wednesday (8 February) that the Doha Development Round trade talks might be able to move forward without the European Union first making a new offer on the access of agricultural products to EU markets.

At a briefing during her first official visit to Brussels since her appointment in November last year, Schwab said that the US believed that several countries including Japan, India, Brazil and China, have had an excuse not to engage in detailed negotiations, and have, in practice "been hiding behind the very modest EU offer on agriculture".

"[They] have had an excuse not to engage actively in the Doha negotiations, not to show their hand either on agriculture or in manufacturing or services access issues," she added.

While the US believed that the best way to break open this impasse would be for the EU to make a better agricultural trade offer, Schwab said that the US was still urging countries like Japan, Brazil and China to be more forthcoming.

She stressed that the "bold, forward leaning" agricultural trade offer that the US has made could only be approved by the Congress, which has to approve any trade agreement, as part of a wider package covering manufacturing and services trade.

Because the present US farm bill expires in the autumn of 2007, there is a coincidence of timing with the Doha talks which "could see dramatic results in terms of what the US could do" if a wider agreement were to be reached, she said.

Report of a breifing in Brussels, 8 February by US Deputy Trade Representative, Susan Schwab.

• Primary Source

United States Mission to the European Union: Public Affairs Office: Dossier: WTO issues http://www.useu.be/Categories/WTO/index.htm

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