Trade ball firmly in Moore's court

By BRIAN FALLOW

WELLINGTON - It is now up to World Trade Organisation director-general, Mike Moore, to try to rescue hopes for a new round of global trade negotiations after the meeting in Seattle failed to agree on an agenda.

Beleaguered by protesters and deeply divided on several key issues the 135 trade ministers could not conclude a deal within the four days they had.

"In the end there were just too many differences on too many issues," said United States Commerce Secretary William Daley.

US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, who chaired the meeting, concluded: "It would be best to take a time-out, consult with one another and find a creative way to finish the job."

Mr Moore's task will be to lock in the progress that was made in Seattle and work on bridging the gaps that remain. No deadline has been set.

Among the main sticking points, in drawing up a brief for a new negotiating round, are Europe's opposition to any talk of eliminating agricultural export subsidies and the American's opposition to reducing their textile tariffs or revisiting ant-dumping rules, which allow governments to impose duties on imports they believe are being sold below cost.

Developing countries meanwhile, suspecting protectionism by the back door, are resisting US moves to bring labour standards within the scope of trade rules.

Outgoing Trade Minister Lockwood Smith said an off-the-cuff comment by US President Bill Clinton about the possibility of sanctions with respect to labour standards was "hugely unfortunate."

"That was far more serious in raising temperatures within the conference than all the protest action outside."

Dr Smith thought not enough preparatory work had been done before the conference, in particular that the main players had not thought through possible compromises on what they had known, going in, would be the most divisive issues.

Nevertheless he thought at the end a deal might have been done between the US and European Union, with the US giving ground on industrial tariffs and the Europeans on agriculture.

But the American hosts had not allowed for the possibility of extending the talks another day.

It had also taken them too long to grapple with the organisational problems of having 135 countries negotiating on a wide range of issues, he said.

Many developing country delegations complained of being elbowed aside and marginalised as the negotiations went down to the wire.

Veteran Egyptian trade negotiator Munir Zahran said: "They have been treating us like animals, keeping us out in the cold and telling us nothing."