SAO PAULO Rich and poor nations on Sunday began trying again to narrow their differences over farm trade and to put global trade talks back on track.
Farm trade reform lies at the heart of the informal talks between ministers aimed at reaching basic deals in World Trade Organization negotiations before a window of opportunity closes in July.
The key players are the United States, the European Union, and the Group of 20 developing nations led by Brazil, India and South Africa, which represents more than 70 percent of the world's farmers and 60 percent of its population.
"We would like to move forward, if they let us," the Indian minister of trade and industry, Kamal Nath, said on Saturday night, ahead of negotiations with the U.S. trade chief, Robert Zoellick, and his counterparts, Pascal Lamy of the European Union, Mark Vaile of Australia and Celso Amorim of Brazil.
The World Trade Organization's Doha round of free trade talks, started in 2001, collapsed last year because of deep differences over farm import tariffs and subsidies.
Surrounded by metal barriers and hundreds of police and soldiers, the ministers will meet on the sidelines of a gathering of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development running until Friday.
The UNCTAD conference brings together representatives of 180 nations to build exports between poor nations and fairer trade with wealthy states.
Leading agricultural exporter Brazil, and India with its high tariffs to protect small farmers, have kept a unified G20 front despite pressure by rich nations to cut barriers to EU and U.S. exports of farm products and manufactured goods.
More than 80 percent of all world exports are produced by only 10 nations, UNCTAD says. Six of the world's 10 poorest nations are worse off today than they were 20 years ago, according to Oxfam International.
Subsidies allow EU and U.S. farmers to sell goods in world markets for less than they cost to produce and make it difficult for poor nations' products to compete.
The UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, reminded UNCTAD delegates on Saturday that they were still demanding the same access to rich nation farm markets as they were when UNCTAD was formed in 1964.
"The sad truth is that the world today is a much more unequal place than it was 40 years ago," Annan said.
Momentum in the Doha round of talks could be lost if a deal is not reached before the end of July, when the United States starts to focus on its presidential election and the EU prepares for executive changes. It could be months or even years before they could be resumed.
"We meet again at a crucial moment, as we enter the final phase of the negotiations on a framework text for agriculture," Amorim said before his meeting with Zoellick.
Amorim said last week the elimination of the rich nations' export subsidies and a substantial reduction of domestic subsidies were his priorities in the talks.
The European Union agreed in principle last month to scrap export subsidies on farm produce - blamed for hurting producers in poor countries - and dropped controversial demands for new global rules on investment, competition and government procurement.
The United States has already signaled readiness to scrap its own much smaller export subsidies and trade-distorting export credits.
But both Washington and Brussels have stressed that the concessions are conditional on poorer countries agreeing to open their own markets.
Amorim was also meeting Lamy on the formation of a new trade bloc linking the EU and South America's Mercosur group - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The two sides hope to seal an agreement by October.(Reuters, AP) Members of the world's least developed countries were also scheduled to meet Sunday as the UNCTAD forum began.Reuters:
