The United States is holding out hope for a breakthrough on world trade talks in the next six months, but Washington’s top trade official cautioned on Tuesday that the Doha round could be hampered by sensitive negotiations on farm trade and the US political calendar.
If progress can be made in the multilateral talks, ”we hope we will be able to do that in the next six months,” US Trade Representative Susan Schwab told business leaders and diplomats at an annual National Foreign Trade Council gala.
But Schwab acknowledged that closing a deal on agricultural goods — the most delicate trade issue for many nations — could be a Herculean task.
”Quite frankly, we’re getting down to the tough stuff … There are no easy decisions. But we’re committed, the president is committed to the Doha round,” Schwab said.
It was a stalemate over farm subsidies in affluent nations, and tariffs in the developing world, that forced the World Trade Organisation to freeze the talks indefinitely in July.
The acrimonious suspension was a low point for the Doha round, which had been touted since its launch in 2001 as a solution to world poverty.
The United States and Europe, nevertheless, insist a deal might still be possible.
WTO chief Pascal Lamy said this week that a deal might be brokered in the months between the November 7 US congressional elections — in which polls indicate Democrats might wrest legislative control from Republicans — and the renewal of US farm legislature next spring.
The farm Bill, which expires next summer, will determine how much the United States spends on farm support programmes that were attacked by developing nations in trade talks.
The Bush administration’s authority to negotiate trade deals, called fast-track, will also expire next year.
Since July, US officials have been pressing ahead with smaller-scale group and bilateral talks, Schwab said.
”There is plenty waiting to go on in Geneva if we can just get our breakthrough in agriculture and manufacturing,” Schwab said.
Schwab also said she hoped Congress could vote on a free trade agreement with Peru during a lame-duck session after the November elections.
Earlier in the day, Schwab met with Peruvian President Alan Garcia, who travelled to Washington to rally support for a bilateral trade agreement his nation hopes will fuel economic growth and help combat poverty.
No date has been set for a vote on that deal, but Garcia told reporters after his meeting with Schwab that its fate hangs on the outcome of the November elections. – Reuters