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Tony Blair has given a strong hint that the economic superpowers are on the brink of an agreement to restart the stalled talks on a new deal on world trade, indicating that he saw it as part of his legacy.
The Prime Minister told the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) that he would be holding talks with other major European powers as well as politicians from the United States and Brazil in the next few weeks, and that he was "relatively optimistic".
Blair said a deal would see deeper cuts in the Europe's Common Agricultural Policy and US farm subsidies, and greater access to industrial markets in emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil.
"I think there is a deal that can be done," he said, adding: "That will be a priority of mine over the next couple of months or so."
His comments are expected to be reinforced by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson when they give a joint address to the CBI this morning.
The negotiations were launched five years ago to eliminate trade-distorting farm subsidies in the West and open up markets to poor nations, while giving Western firms better access to emerging economies.
However, talks ground to halt in July after a disagreement over the scale of cuts to farm subsidies.
Blair said: "Even if only the offers now on the table were agreed it would have an impact that would be twice as great as the last round [in 1993]. It's like a Rubik's Cube - you have to fit the whole thing together."
But Friends of the Earth trade campaigner Joe Zacune said the proposals would open up developing country sectors such as forestry and fisheries, threatening natural resources on which millions depended.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the EU had proposed that ministers meet before 2007.
Meanwhile, CBI president Sir John Sunderland used his opening speech to the conference to attack the "staggering hypocrisy" of European governments that preached free trade while erecting barriers to foreign companies. He said that "selfish" protectionist action hit job creation and investment, and accused France, Spain and even the US of trying to stop foreign takeovers of their companies.
- INDEPENDENT
