Ministers fight to nail WTO trade deal

Ministers battled to nail down the last portion of a new global free trade pact Saturday, as delegates voiced optimism but some emerging economies threatened to dash fragile hopes of a breakthrough."We are closer to a deal than we have been at any point in the last seven years," EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told reporters ahead of afternoon talks on the third plank of the WTO's current proposals: the services sector.After a tentative breakthrough Friday on the sticking points of farming and industry, ministers from leading nations returned to the table, shifting their attention Saturday to services, a key priority for developed nations.Ministers have been meeting at the World Trade Organization since Monday to discuss cuts in subsidies and import tariffs with the aim of mapping out a new deal under the so-called Doha Round of WTO talks.The Doha Round was launched in the Qatari capital seven years ago but has been deadlocked because of disputes between the rich developed world and poorer developing nations on trade in farm and industrial products.The talks here were heading for collapse -- like so many others since Doha began in 2001 -- until a breakthrough late Friday saw the biggest powers find common ground on a draft agreement proposed by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy covering the first two areas under discussion: farming and industry.Mandelson and other delegates at the talks expressed optimism following Friday's breakthough, but the deal remained under pressure, as India and Argentina meanwhile stressed their reservations to the proposals already made."We're not very happy with the package, primarily on agricultural issues," said the Indian ambassador to the WTO, Ujal Singh Bhatia, as he headed into talks on Saturday."We have come with our pockets full, we have come with many goodies. we expect to return with many goodies. If not, we'll return with the same goodies we had brought.""This afternoon's session will be important," another diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity. "India will be looking to see what it can get out of the session to decide whether to ditch discussions."Argentina said it feared that "without significant changes to (Lamy's accord) ... it would be impossible to reach a positive outcome," in a letter to Lamy released on Saturday.Lamy said earlier that there were still sensitive subjects such as cotton subsidies in the rich world that needed to be addressed.South Africa has also said it could not approve the deal in its current form and Japan's agriculture minister has expressed strong dissatisfaction.Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has insisted all week that he will protect his country's millions of subsistence farmers and nascent industry, which are shielded from imports by tariffs levied on foreign goods.The turnaround Friday emerged after meetings between seven key trading powers -- the United States, the European Union, Australia, Brazil, China, India and Japan.The talks then widened to a ministerial conference of all 35 key nations invited to Geneva to broker the pact.Anything approved by the 35 parties here would still have to be cleared by all 153 WTO member states. A new global deal can only be adopted with unanimity.Among new proposals put forward by Lamy on Friday was a further cut in the US farm subsidies to 14.5 billion dollars (9.2 billion euros) per year and a clause to prevent developing countries from shielding entire sectors from tariff cuts, a source told AFP.Mandelson told reporters that world ministers would meet again Sunday with EU backing "to work on this emerging deal as the basis of a modalities package which we believe could unlock a final phase of a Doha agreement.""At this stage, we're seeking to improve the package, not undo it.

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[Source: Business News]