End of the Impasse in Global Trade Talks May Come Soon

Trade leaders from the major world economies said Sunday that a breakthrough in stalled global trade talks is possible “within a matter of days.”

Describing their progress after two days of intense discussions, trade chiefs from the European Community, the United States, Japan and Canada said a dispute between the United States and the EC over agricultural subsidies could soon be resolved.

Focus could then move back to the stalled General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade talks in Geneva, they said.

“We are looking for a breakthrough in those issues that have blocked progress to date within a matter of days,” said U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills.

The GATT negotiations to reform the world’s trading system and boost global trade by an estimated $200 billion face a deadline of year’s end.

“What we have to do is to try and break the deadlock we have in agriculture in the days ahead,” said chief EC Trade negotiator Frans Andriessen. “We do not have much time left, and then we have got to get this back to Geneva and work out the rest.”

The United States and Europe have locked horns over how to cut subsidies to farmers, a dispute that has threatened to tie up any new overall deal in the current round of talks.

Hills said agriculture was the last remaining major issue holding up a resumption of GATT talks.

“On the non-agriculture side, on market access and services and procurement, there are no profound differences between the U.S. and the EC,” she said.

The ministers said they wanted to move the talks away from the U.S.-EC squabble and back to a global forum.

“We expect sufficient progress to be made in agriculture in the days ahead between the U.S. and the European Community, so that at an early date the negotiations can be brought back to Geneva within the multilateral process,” said Michael Wilson, Canada’s Minister of Trade.

Wilson said trade leaders had agreed to work with the negotiators to create a “globally balanced package” by December.

The European Community, the United States, Japan and Canada, which make up the so-called quadrilateral group, met in a country inn in Canada. It had been six months since their last gathering in Japan.

The quadrilateral economies account for almost two-thirds of world trade in goods and services.

Recent talks between the United States and the EC in Brussels failed to reach an agreement, but last Friday the European Community met in Britain and called for an early end to the talks.

Pressure to have a deal reached on agriculture before the U.S. presidential election has increased, but President Bush has said that the United States has conceded as much as it could.

Talks on the current round of the GATT have dragged on six years, with one deadline after another passing. But with many of the world’s largest economies facing slowdowns, many governments are interested in lowering barriers and increasing trade.