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The new US trade chief arrived in Geneva on Monday in conciliatory mode, declaring he wanted to listen to America's trade partners and resolve disputes with the European Union through negotiation, not litigation. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, who took up his job in March, placed his first round of meetings with Geneva trade negotiations firmly in line with President Barack Obama's policy of improving diplomatic ties with the rest of the world.
"The world has given us an opportunity to reset our relationships with a lot of our partners, so this is as much an opportunity for me to hear their perspectives as much as to share my own," Kirk told reporters as he arrived for talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The Obama administration is conducting a review of trade policy, ranging from its stance on new free-trade agreements with countries such as Colombia and South Korea to efforts to reach a deal in the long-running Doha talks.
US trade partners are keenly awaiting the results of that review after promises by Obama on last year's campaign trail to take a tougher line on trade to ensure that trade agreements reflected labour and environment concerns. Kirk's spokeswoman Carol Guthrie said Obama and Kirk had not set a deadline for the review.
Since taking office, Obama has watered down but not rejected controversial "Buy American" provisions in the US stimulus package. Kirk told Reuters last Tuesday that a new approach was needed in the Doha talks, launched 7-1/2 years ago to create new market opportunities and help developing countries prosper through trade.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said last month in Washington that a renewed push to finish the Doha trade round could not begin until the United States was ready to take part. Kirk's meetings in Geneva will give him an opportunity to hear the views of emerging farm exporters such as Brazil and poor cotton growers in Africa, who complain that subsidies to US farmers distort the market and hurt their producers.
Kirk said he had agreed with EU trade chief Catherine Ashton that the two trading superpowers should spend less time on trade disputes and resolve their differences through negotiations so that they could focus on improving the global trading system.
The United States and the European Union, its biggest trading partner, reached a provisional deal last Wednesday to end a two-decade-long row over beef trade, heading off new retaliatory duties on European produce. "Assuming that we get the beef issue finally put to bed, which we are 99 percent there then we will look and see if there are other issues that we might be able to address," Kirk said.

Copyright Reuters, 2009

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