Pascal Lamy, WTO, director-general, on Friday urged the European Union and the US to make concessions on agriculture to achieve a breakthrough in global trade talks.
“Both need to make efforts, and that is the issue that will allay the concerns of many developing countries who want freer trade”, Mr Lamy told French LCI television.
His comments came after trade talks halted on Thursday as the European Union came under attack from its negotiating partners for trying to protect its farmers and faced renewed fire from France for giving too much away.
Two days of meetings in Geneva under the Doha round of trade talks ended without a new offer from Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, to go further in cutting farm tariffs. Rob Portman, US trade representative, said: “The responsibility rests squarely with the EU and their ability to come forward with an offer on agriculture.”
Talks have reached a critical stage and negotiators need to reach a deal on agriculture in the next two weeks if efforts to restart the Doha round by the end of the year are to succeed. “Some speak of a deadlock in the talks,” said Celso Amorim, Brazil's foreign minister. “I prefer to talk of a padlock, and the key is in the hands of the EU.”
But Mr Mandelson's initial offer on farm tariffs and subsidies was savagely attacked by France, one of the EU's most influential member states.
Writing in Les Echos newspaper, Nicolas Sarkozy, France's interior minister, said Mr Mandelson had accepted a “fool's bargain”. Mr Sarkozy, though regarded as one of the more free-market of French politicians, went on: “French and European farmers can count on my commitment on their behalf to save what is left of one of the first and principal common policies.”
France has mobilised a group of sceptical EU member states to warn the European Commission against removing tariff protection from European farmers. Jacques Chirac, the French president, sent a letter this month to José Manuel Barroso, president of the Commission, warning that “France will not be able to endorse the outcome of a negotiation that is contrary to its interests”.
Mr Mandelson gained backing on Tuesday from EU states for the stance he has taken so far. But resistance remains to offering deeper cuts. Some officials from the round's core negotiating group the US, EU, India, Brazil and Australia hoped the EU could make a new offer over the next week.
But EU officials said the minimum demanded by the US and the Group of 20 developing countries, which includes India and Brazil, was more than they could offer. The G20 is calling for the rich countries to cut farm tariffs by an average of 54 per cent, against the initial EU offer which the US calculates as an average reduction of 25 per cent. The US proposal envisages an average 75 per cent cut.
Michael Mann, a spokesman for Mariann Fischer Boel, EU agriculture commissioner, said on Thursday: “The G20 proposal on market access goes too far.”
The negotiating mandate of Ms Fischer Boel and Mr Mandelson for the talks has no specific demands on tariffs but requires them to defend the EU's common agricultural policy.
