Clark sees trade talks as Iraq row fades

12.00am

BANGKOK - Hoping tensions over the Iraq war have eased, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Sunday her country was rebuilding US support to revive free trade talks abruptly cancelled by Washington in May.

"I think everybody has moved on from Iraq," Clark told Reuters in Bangkok on the same day that US President George W. Bush rewarded close ally Thailand with the launch of talks towards a free trade deal.

New Zealand's hopes of similar negotiations with its second-largest trading partner were dashed in May when the United States said such talks would raise too many objections from US farmers.

New Zealand's opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq also figured in the decision by Washington, which is negotiating a trade accord with Australia, a key ally in the campaign to topple former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"Obviously there wasn't a lot of support for the war without UN authorisation, but now people are looking ahead to how to best restore Iraqi sovereignty and how to support reconstruction," Clark said.

"New Zealand is certainly willing to be a part of that."

Clark, among 21 world leaders in Bangkok for an Asia-Pacific summit on Monday and Tuesday, will have a "formal pull aside" with Bush on Monday, her spokesman said.

Clark raised the ire of the Bush Administration in March when she said the war would not have happened if Democrat Al Gore had won the presidential elections. Clark apologised for the remark.

The United States imposes quotas on the import of two of New Zealand's major exports, meat and dairy products. New Zealand has no specific restrictions on the import of US goods.

"New Zealand...has been building a favourable constituency in the United States among the business and chambers of commerce, and the Congress," she said.

"At some point we hope that support will tip the balance towards negotiations," Clark added, but she gave no timeframe.

Clark said her country would work to bring together nations that clashed bitterly last month in Cancun, Mexico, causing the collapse of negotiations deemed crucial to finishing the Doha round of talks by the end of 2004.

"I think there needs to be a focus on what people will negotiate on. It's clear for developing countries the whole basket of Singapore issues isn't attractive to them," Clark said.

The Cancun talks collapsed after developing countries rejected a demand from the European Union, Japan and others for the Doha round to be widened to include new rules, known as the Singapore issues, to uphold transparency in the award of government contracts and to fight corruption and red tape.

"It may be that one or two issues could be pulled out of that basket to be talked about," she said.

"Given that Apec puts a lot of emphasis on trade facilitation, that would probably be one that would get wide buy-in from a lot of countries here."

The 21 Apec leaders, ranging from tiny Brunei and Papua New Guinea to powerhouses such as Japan and China, are expected to end their meeting on Tuesday with a strong call to get the Doha talks back on track.

"I think the talks should move on from whatever tentative agreement there was a Cancun. I'm told there was a quite a lot of progress made on agriculture and it would be useful not to go back on that," Clark said.

- REUTERS