Faltering global trade talks inched ahead at meetings in Rio de Janeiro, US, Brazilian and European officials said on Saturday, adding it was still possible to meet an April 30 deadline for agreeing on cutting tariffs on farm and manufactured goods.
"We didn't always agree but we agreed we need to keep trying. ... I believe we inched closer to resolution," US Trade Representative Rob Portman told a news conference at the end of two days of talks with European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.
Amorim said the get-together, which followed gloomy meetings last month in London and Geneva, was not a negotiating or decision-making session but an "exchange of ideas."
The players are struggling to reach an April 30 deadline for overcoming differences on cutting tariffs on farm and manufactured goods, a vital part of the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round that aims to create a new world trade order that would raise millions of people from poverty.
"There is a possibility of agreeing these modalities by the end of April," Mandelson said. "We have been helped toward that by our discussions in Rio. But this step forward will not be achieved by one party drawing first, shooting first or conceding first."
The talks had reached a virtual deadlock, with one US official before the Rio meeting describing them as in "deep trouble." Poor and developing nations want big concessions from the rich on farm exports, saying trade barriers are hurting their people. The rich countries want greater access for their manufactured goods and services.
"We all know we need to move. We want a simultaneous movement," said Amorim, whose country is an agricultural powerhouse and major emerging market that has acted as a leader for the poor nations in the Doha Round. "We didn't get to any specifics. We identified our differences," he said.
WORKING AGAINST THE CLOCK:
Their conclusions will be sent to the other countries in the 149-member WTO for discussion. Officials in Geneva, home base for the talks, will be asked to further examine the areas of domestic subsidies and market access for agricultural and manufactured goods.
"We're working against the clock," Mandelson said.
WTO head Pascal Lamy, who also attended the Rio talks, said on Friday that Brazil must be prepared to open its industries to more foreign competition for the talks to succeed. He also repeated calls for the United States and Europe to sweeten their offers to open farm markets.
The parties are anxious to reach an overall pact on lowering barriers by year's end, after which US President George W. Bush will lose his authority to sign off on deals without congressional approval. "If we are successful, literally hundreds of millions of people will be lifted out of poverty," Portman said.
The social issues any eventual pact aspires to address were evident on the oceanfront avenue outside the elegant Copacabana Palace Hotel where the meeting was held. Prostitutes, street children and hustlers rubbed shoulders with richer Brazilians and tourists from Europe and America.