The momentum for a global trade deal is building with the presidents of Brazil and France both expressing greater urgency than before, world leaders said on Wednesday at a summit in Japan.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed his openness to a global trade deal when top officials from the United States, the European Union, India, Brazil and other WTO members gather in Geneva on July 21, the leaders said. Experts say that is the last chance to broker a deal before a new US president takes office in January.
Brazil, one of the world's biggest producers of farm goods, has played a major role representing the interests of developing countries in the World Trade Organisation's long-running Doha round of trade talks.
For his part, French President Nicolas Sarkozy made clear he wants a breakthrough in the Doha talks and appealed to Brazil to help strike a deal, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. Brown, who has been pushing for a strong political signal ahead of the Geneva meeting, issued a joint statement on trade with Lula that he said showed a softening of Latin America's position in the talks. France is reluctant to approve cuts to European Union farm subsidies that would have to be part of any deal.
The importance of reaching a Doha deal now is heightened by global economic uncertainly, he added. Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, told reporters in Japan it was "crucial to go further" next week in Geneva, a Brazilian official confirmed on Wednesday.
But Brazil's openness to a deal depends how open other countries are, he warned. While Lula said earlier this month the Doha round could be completed by July 30, a WTO mediator said on Tuesday that negotiators have yet to agree on key proposals to free up trade in industrial goods.
A revised negotiating proposal on industrial goods is due on Thursday. That text, together with a new agriculture draft, will serve as the blueprint for trade ministers in Geneva, the headquarters of the WTO. The United States and the EU want leading developing countries such as Brazil to make deeper cuts on import tariffs for industrial goods. That would be in return for reductions in developed nations' agricultural subsidies and tariffs.
The Doha round was launched in 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks on the United States, in the hope of boosting the global economy and helping poor countries export more. But the negotiations have missed one deadline after another as countries have clashed on cutting farm subsidies and import tariffs and opening up markets to more competition.
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