Agence France Presse | By Jitendra Joshi | July 31, 2003
The European Commission Thursday warned against "over-optimism" about prospects for a world trade summit in September after a crucial stock-taking exercise in Canada.
"The result of these two days of discussions (in Montreal) are clear. There is not scope for pessimism but there is not scope for over-optimism," said a spokeswoman for Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.
"A lot of work remains to be done," she said.
Following the ministerial talks in Montreal, the world's biggest trading powers still need to bridge big divisions if the September meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Cancun, Mexico, is to yield a breakthrough.
The European Union says it has done its bit by announcing reforms to farm subsidies paid out by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and the ball is now in the court of others, notably the United States.
Gregor Kreuzhuber, a spokesman for Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler, said the informal meeting of 25 trade ministers in Montreal saw the "first timid steps from different camps to seek converging positions".
But he added: "We are still in for some days and weeks of hard, hard work before Cancun.
"At the end of the day, you only get a deal if everyone is ready to move. This burden cannot only be laid on the shoulders of the European Union."
The latest round of free-trade talks has made little progress since being launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital Doha.
The drive is stalled over conditions to progressively reduce export subsidies for agriculture and on access to markets, key issues for poor countries unable to compete in the global market place.
World Bank officials visiting Brussels said the CAP reform deal was welcome as far as it went, but that the developed world had to do much more to throw open its markets.
"All of these rich regions are terrible in their impact on developing countries in terms of their agricultural policies," Ian Goldin, World Bank vice president for external affairs, told reporters.
He decried hefty tariffs that price out processed goods made by poorer countries, keeping them over-reliant on volatile commodities such as sugar rather than letting them develop industry of their own.
Nevertheless, Goldin said, the Montreal meeting showed encouraging signs.
"There's a collective will to go forward to the next stage," he said, while cautioning: "Clearly when it comes to trade negotiations, it's not over till any fat ladies involved have sung."
At the talks in Canada, the United States and EU agreed to draft a joint proposal on farm trade for the September WTO gathering.
Kreuzhuber said outsiders should not fear a stitch-up between the world's two biggest trading powers.
The bilateral initiative "should not be misinterpreted that we are trying to cook up a deal between Europe and the United States that would leave the other 144 members of the WTO in the cold", the spokesman said.
Pledging "full transparency" from the EU-US talks, he said "without Europe and the United States agreeing, it's obvious that Cancun and the Doha development agenda will be very difficult".Agence France Presse:
