US trade chief says WTO deal 'within reach'

GENEVA - US trade chief Rob Portman said yesterday he believed a deal in long-troubled global free trade negotiations was "within reach".

The United States trade representative, who is in Geneva for a series of meetings after negotiations missed another deadline at the end of April, spoke briefly to journalists after talks with World Trade Organisation (WTO) head Pascal Lamy.

"We believe it's within reach. We believe that there is a way for us to get to 'yes' and to come up with a successful conclusion of the round," he said.

Several trade ministers are in Geneva in a show of support for the WTO's Doha round, which, after more than four years and a number of missed deadlines, risks collapse if it does not achieve a big breakthrough before the end of July.

Portman, who is due to change jobs shortly, gave no further details and it was not immediately clear whether he had heard anything new since his arrival in Geneva late on Monday.

Together with his deputy and likely successor Susan Schwab, Portman dined with Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim on Monday night and was due to meet the various heads of the WTO negotiating groups, the Australian trade minister and Japan's farm minister.

European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, another key player in the trade negotiation, is not in Geneva, but he spoke at length by telephone on Monday night with Amorim, Brazilian officials said.

"It was a good conversation," Amorim's spokesman said.

Lamy has told the WTO's 149 member states they have "weeks rather than months" to put together a pact on slashing rich nation farm subsidies and sharply reducing tariffs on both farm and industrial goods after they failed to conclude one by the end of April as planned.

This deal is seen as crucial to clear the way to an accord across the rest of the round, which also includes services and special measures to aid the poorest countries, by the end of July and a complete free trade treaty by the end of the year.

The round, launched in late 2001 to boost the global economy with the hope of lifting millions out of poverty, cannot run on into 2007, diplomats say.

Next year US President George W. Bush looks set to lose special powers given him by Congress to negotiate trade deals, and without them, multilateral negotiations are all but impossible.

- REUTERS