US broadly backs plan to restart WTO talks

CANBERRA - The United States backed the thrust of a plan to breathe new life into stalled world trade talks today, saying it was willing to resume negotiations as long as the European Union was also more flexible.

US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told The Australian newspaper his country was willing to negotiate through the deadlock that forced the World Trade Organisation in July to suspend the Doha round of talks, aimed at freeing up world trade.

"We're willing to negotiate our way through this," Johanns said in an interview published today.

"We're willing to cut our subsidies ... But the EU has to be more flexible. They cannot continue to maintain very high tariffs."

The Doha round of trade talks was suspended after the major trading powers failed to agree on agricultural trade, with the European Union and the United States blaming each other for refusing to make enough concessions.

Johanns and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab have joined ministers from the 18 Cairns Group of agricultural exporting nations in Australia for the 20th anniversary of the Cairns Group's first meeting.

Australia's Trade Minister Mark Vaile has proposed a "five and five" plan to restart the Doha talks, suggesting the United States cut farm subsidies by a further A$5 billion ($7.65 billion) and urging the EU to cut agricultural tariffs by another five per cent.

The EU's trade negotiator Peter Mandelson has rejected the plan, and decided not to attend the Cairns meeting, but US Deputy Trade Representative Peter Allgeier told the Australian Financial Review he backed the thrust of Australia's proposal.

"Whether we support those particular numbers or not, I don't want to comment on that, but we certainly support the thrust," he said in remarks published on Thursday. "We certainly think it is do-able by the Europeans."

Schwab told the Australian newspaper that all sides of the Doha impasse needed to give ground.

"We're prepared to do more in terms of market access and domestic support but only if there's more European market access on the table," she said.

The WTO launched the Doha Round in 2001 to try to free up trade in what has been billed as a once-in-a-generation chance to inject up to A$300 billion a year into the world economy and raise millions of people out of poverty.

The Cairns group includes Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay.

- REUTERS