AFX European Focus | January 23, 2004
Brazil's minister of Development, Industry and Trade Luiz Fernando Furlan said informal meetings in Davos have helped progress towards a positive conclusion to the Doha round of WTO trade talks at the end of this year.
Speaking to AFX News on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum here, Furlan said: "I believe the meeting this morning was very good, very good. The idea of Joseph Deiss was very well received."
Switzerland's Federal Councillor of the Economy, Deiss, had proposed a meeting of around 20 trade representatives in a bid to revive global trade talks, stalled around questions of cross-border investment, competition, farm subsidies and tariffs.
"Also the fact that the meeting is informal is much better, because no-one was caring about a communique: 'If I say that, it's written here'," Furlan said.
He said the talks today had left him confident that the WTO can reach agreement on the problems of the Doha round by the deadline.
US and EU ministers were conspicuous by their absence in this morning's meeting, but Furlan had 45 minutes of "very good and constructive" talks this afternoon with US Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans, he said.
He declined to detail the content of the talks. Asked whether Evans had been pressing for concessions, Furlan said: "No, no. We are building a positive agenda between the countries."
As part of their own trade negotiations, Brazil and the US are currently locked in dispute over US agricultural subsidies and access for Brazilian agricultural products.
Furlan was moved into the frontline of trade talks with the US after US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick attributed part of the responsibility for the failure of the WTO meeting in Cancun to Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim.AFX European Focus:
