Barriers in Trade Talks Still Stand

President Bush’s top trade negotiator said Wednesday that a meeting next month of 148 countries would not be able to achieve a hoped-for breakthrough.

U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman’s comments came after three days of talks in London and Geneva. The discussions failed to clear roadblocks so negotiators could agree in December on the outlines of a deal to lower tariffs and other barriers for manufactured goods, services such as banking and insurance, and farm products.

Various trade ministers said the 25-nation European Union was the major stumbling block because of its refusal to go further in reducing barriers that protect European farmers.

Portman said that he hoped for some progress at the Dec. 13-18 meeting in Hong Kong in narrowing the differences and that the goal still was to wrap up the talks by the end of 2006.

“It would be a grave mistake to declare this round at an end,” Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said. “There is still an entire year ahead of us.”

Private economists said the failure of this week’s talks was a troubling prelude to the Hong Kong meeting.

“The short-term and midterm prospects look pretty dim for a breakthrough,” said Dan Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank.

Referring to two earlier trade sessions, he said, “The best we can hope for is to avoid a Seattle-Cancun style of meltdown, which would be devastating.”

A meeting of trade ministers in Seattle in December 1999 failed to launch new talks and was marred by rioting.

Talks finally got underway in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, but a meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003 failed to make progress.