Chief briefer was Kathy Novelli.
Overall, the U.S. radiates confidence. Discussions have "moved a long way [in the u.S. direction] on ag and a long way on TRIPS." The big question for the U.S. is where the "red lines" for the EU are. Novelli doesn't believe that competition is a deal breaker for the EU on launching a new round. She doesn't know where the "red lines" for the EU are on agriculture and environment. She claims that EU is now isolated on all three issues, though the INSIDE U.S. TRADE report on Japanese and Korean support for the Harbinson ag text is mroe conditional than she made it out to be.
She said that Joe Papovich is "very comfortable" that constructive movement is being made on the TRIPS/ health issue. India says that they need a political declaration with no legal affect on TRIPs in order to be "be on board." PHARMA lobbyists questioned Novelli repeatedly about this to ensure that the Doha language on TRIPS would be merely horatory.
She said that Zoellick has told the Indians that the U.S. cannot and will not move on textiles.
Market access hasn't been discussed. There has been no opposition to the Harbinson language on government procurement.
The U.S. has responded to discussions on dumping by asserting the need to review "erroneous" WTO panel decisions on dumping.
There will be a 5 p.m. press conference by African ministers to assert that they speak only for themselves, and that, vs. India, there is no "Like Minded Group." Rumors that the U.S. will cut off aid to African countries in order to get their support for launching a new round are "completely false."
The discussions in agriculture are said to be isolating the EU. She told APAC reps. that "there is no need to be worried about the subsidies language of the Harbinson text." Janet Newsome of APAC very concerned that discussion of "tariff peaks" is code for anti-American positions. Novelli said that "everything is on the table" in the tariff discussions, including "tariff walls," such as that of India's.
The Ministerial will continue until tomorrow, possibly until midnight. There is no "critical mass" for continuing the ministerial on Thursday as "some ministers don't have their own transportation" and have to return on public airways. There will be another briefing tomorrow, and industry suggested and USTR accepted to have a briefing on Thursday "to show support for the U.S. position."
A final note, the industry and USTR people are so familiar with each other that there are few grammatically complete questions asked, only single words emoted, which trigger comforting responses from USTR to "Mary" or "Janet" etc. Steve Porterfield and David Waskow asked questions about fisheries subsidies and U.S. support for EU investment proposals and got non-responses.:
