Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-13-Speech-2-208"
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"en.20070213.17.2-208"2
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"Mr President, I want to give this House a substantive assessment of where things stand on the world trade talks.
The Davos meeting of WTO trade ministers in January signalled the formal resumption of work in Geneva across all the negotiating groups. What lay behind this was an injection of new political commitment to the negotiations at senior levels, including from President Bush. I believe this is sincere and that there is, therefore, a new level of political investment in the process, which creates a fresh opportunity for finding success. On this basis, the Director-General of the WTO announced in the Trade Negotiating Committee on 31 January that negotiations in Geneva should restart at multilateral level in all the negotiating groups.
Farm subsidies remain the gateway to a deal. But a breakthrough inside agriculture must trigger a meaningful commitment to reductions in industrial tariffs and, further down the line, specific market-opening commitments in trade in services. In these areas, we are looking for meaningful and substantial moves by emerging economies in the G-20 group, without which it will not be possible to conclude the round.
In the meantime, US negotiators have started to turn the corner, but they have not reached the point of showing to us what new reduction of trade-distorting farm subsidies they intend to table. This is indispensable to the progress we are seeking. Susan Schwab, the US Trade Representative, is reaching out to the Democratic Congressional leadership in order to prepare the ground and to see how she can meet some of their requirements for an extension of the Administration’s fast-track negotiating authority, the Trade Promotion Authority, but she has not, so far, been ready to make the necessary jump either to agreement with Congress, or convergence with the US trade partners on key aspects of the current negotiation.
The Administration’s preliminary proposal last week for a new farm bill was welcome but somewhat disappointing in this context. If we are to have a successful outcome in the WTO, the US will need to align the new farm bill with more ambitious cuts and disciplines in trade-distorting subsidies negotiated as part of the Doha Round.
On timing, however, the US roadmap is somewhat clearer. A breakthrough on core issues in the Doha Development Agenda is the platform on which the Bush Administration says it will request a new or extended TPA before its expiry in June. That implies a breakthrough in the next few months on the big numbers in the key parts of the negotiations.
It is in our interest to try to seize the opportunity that now exists to reach a conclusion. I do not, myself, think that postponing a push for a deal into the summer or later is a realistic option. Given all the uncertainties in the United States and elsewhere, we would risk losing the fragile momentum that has been created, and this judgement accords with that of the European Council as reflected in the Presidency’s summing-up at the General Affairs Council on Monday. A DDA outcome would be very worth having, economically, politically and for the sake of the international system, and therefore we will continue to negotiate constructively but toughly for a deal."@en1
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