US sees trade talks moving, poor want more action

GENEVA - US trade chief Robert Portman has said he sees "real movement" in struggling four-year global trade talks.

However, key developing countries signalled they wanted big powers to do more on cutting farm subsidies.

The contrasting views were set out on the second of three days of meetings in Switzerland to inject new life into the talks, the Doha Round, which aim to create a new global pact to open world markets and lift millions out of poverty.

Portman was speaking to reporters in Geneva a day after the United States and the European Union presented new proposals on the key problem of cutting farm tariffs and reducing agricultural subsidies in rich countries.

"For the first time, I see real movement towards having a successful meeting in Hong Kong," he said, referring to a ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in December at which vital decisions have to be made.

Diplomats said the empty rhetoric had finally given way to real discussion about the numbers that would have to go into any pact.

But soon after Portman spoke, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the G20 group he chairs believed the US plan was "insufficient because it does not lead to real cuts in (US) budgetary expenditures (on subsidies)."

Kamal Nath, trade minister of leading G20 member India, speaking with Amorim at a news conference after the group met to consider the US and EU blueprints, voiced a similar view.
"I would welcome this step (the US plan) but what we need is a leap that removes the great structural imbalances in agriculture," he said.

Another sign of trouble came from Brussels where the European Union's largest farm organisation, COPA, dismissed the US proposals as aimed at protecting its own interests -- a stance that could boost internal EU doubts on cutting subsidies.

- REUTERS