Agence France Presse
HONOLULU, Hawaii, March 20 (AFP) - President Bill Clinton wants to make another bid to launch multilateral trade talks this year but there are still no signs that governments can agree on a basic agenda, his top trade negotiator said here Monday.
"He remains committed to the launch of a round this year," US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky told a gathering of Pacific basin business leaders.
A previous US-led effort to open a new cycle of global trade liberalization talks collapsed in failure last December in Seattle when ministers from the World Trade Organization failed to reach agreement on what should and should not be included in the negotiations.
"I think the meeting will resume at such a point where there's confidence among a critical mass of countries that there is basic agreement on a core agenda," Barshefsky told delegates to a session of the Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC), grouping business representatives from 20 Pacific region economies.
"I don't perceive as yet that that agreement exists."
The Seattle talks sparked massive and sometimes violent street protests that overshadowed rancorous and ultimately fruitless discussions among WTO members, an experience Barshefsky clearly does not want to repeat.
"I think we need to be very, very careful that to the extent that ministers re-convene it is to successfully launch a round," she said.
"I think we don't want to leave too much to chance and that suggests that we be sure a critical mass of countries believes in a common agenda before convene a new session."
In Seattle, the United States and the European Union were unable to bridge differences on scrapping agricultural export subsidies, which Washington supported and the EU opposed.
The United States likewise pressed for a limited agenda, focusing on expanding market access, while the EU and other parties sought a broader mandate for the round.
Also addressing the PBEC meeting Monday was South Korean Trade Minister Han Duck-Soo, who appeared to back the European approach.
"We need a comprehensive and broad-based agenda," he said, one that would set multilateral rules governing international investment, competition policies, government procurement and anti-dumping practices.
"We should give serious thought to development issues and social concerns," he added.
Colombian Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez de Soto, alluding to complaints from developing countries in Seattle that they had been left out of a critical phase in the talks, told the PBEC delegates: "We need to revise the internal mechanisms of the WTO to make them more equitable and to avoid (causing) some countries to feel excluded."
Barshefsky pledged that Washington was prepared to reconsider some of its positions, provided its partners did as well.
"The outlines of a new round can be drawn if WTO members accept in the months ahead the shared responsibility of success.
"We are committed to this goal and willing to be flexible in reaching it. But if we are to succeed others must be flexible as well.":
