Brussels - The European Union is not prepared to make any
more concessions on agriculture at next week's key round of global
trade talks in Geneva, the French presidency of the bloc said Friday.
'The EU has exhausted its room for manoeuvre in agriculture and
cannot go any further. So we will not be making any further
concessions,' said Anne-Marie Idrac, a French government minister in
charge of foreign trade.
Idrac was speaking on the sidelines of an extraordinary meeting of
EU ministers, convened in Brussels to prepare the groundwork for next
week's World Trade Organization (WTO) talks. Those talks will address
the so-called Doha Round, which seek to bring down global trade
barriers.
The negotiations have been dragging on since the round was
launched in the Qatar capital in November 2001, amid disputes over
subsidies to farmers by the US and EU and tariffs on industrial goods
imposed by the developing economies of Asia and Latin America.
The 27-member EU runs the risk of being divided, with its southern
members focussed primarily on the agricultural sector and its
northern members more interested in the services and industrial
sectors.
But Idrac insisted on Friday that ministers had agreed to be
united in strength.
The minister also reaffirmed the member states' backing for the
EU's chief negotiator, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, in spite
of the fact that her president, Nicolas Sarkozy, had openly
criticised his anti-protectionist stance only a month ago.
Mandelson on Thursday said that a failure to reach a deal in
Geneva would hamper economic growth.
The commissioner also said the EU was willing to accept a
compromise deal drafted by WTO head Pascal Lamy on the gradual
reduction of EU import tariffs on bananas from Latin America.
The EU currently offers more favourable conditions to banana
exporters from its former colonies in Africa, the Pacific and
the Caribbean (APC).
Idrac said the EU would have to 'strike a balance' between the
requests of Latin American producers, the need to encourage economic
growth in the poorer APC countries, and the interests of the EU's own
banana producers.
The minister also called for an effective 'anti-concentration'
clause to be included in the rounds.
The clause, which is designed to prevent developing countries from
defending entire sectors of their economy, has been strongly
criticized by India.
One German government minister said next week's talks had a '50 to
50 chance' of succeeding.
'There are still plenty of obstacles and risks,' said Bernd
Pfaffenbach, a junior minister who acts as Germany's sherpa at Group
of Eight meetings.
Pfaffenbach said the EU was not prepared to obtain a deal 'at any
price.'
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