Negotiators working on a new global trade deal need to decide whether to limit a key meeting to agriculture and industry or broaden it to areas such as services, officials and diplomats said on Tuesday.
Trade ministers have agreed to try and meet around Easter at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva to clinch an outline deal in the long-running Doha round. The talks, launched in the Qatari capital in November 2001, have taken on renewed urgency because ministers are keen to inject confidence into the troubled world economy.
A meeting around Easter - which diplomats say is more likely to take place in April than in March - is the latest realistic date if there is to be enough time to conclude a full deal by the end of this year. Negotiators in Geneva agree the Doha round should be completed this year before a new US administration takes office, which would distract from the trade talks.
But they differ about what should be discussed at the Easter meeting, a vital issue because it is there that the key trade-offs allowing a deal will take place. "We're going to have some consultations tomorrow on the scope of the issues," India's WTO ambassador, Ujal Singh Bhatia, told Reuters after a meeting of the WTO's General Council.
For instance, the United States is under pressure to cut its trade-distorting farm subsidies, but will do so only if it gets better access in other countries' markets for industrial goods through lower tariffs, or for services through liberalisation.
Agriculture is the key to the talks because of its importance to developing countries, and industry has always been at the centre of trade negotiations. So many developing countries say the meeting in Easter should concentrate on these issues and not be overburdened with others.
But many countries, rich and poor, including the United States, European Union and India, want services, such as banking and telecoms, and temporary migration of labour, to be included. The chairmen of WTO negotiations on agriculture and industry are due to issue their revised negotiating texts this week, which will prepare the ground for the meeting at Easter.
Tuesday's General Council also heard complaints from Brazil about EU restrictions on imports of Brazilian beef, and about trade agreements between the EU and its former colonies, which Brazil fears could result in trade preferences under regional agreements being extended to EU members. Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko was due to attend the council later on Tuesday when it formally approves Ukraine's bid to join the 151-member WTO, which umpires world trade.