The US may have to revise its approach to the failed Doha farm trade talks because expectations by developing countries may be unrealistic, an official of the industry group American Sugar Alliance (ASA) said. Don Phillips, trade advisor of the ASA, told Reuters at the annual meeting of the group here that there may be an effort to revive the talks in the fall, "but it won't be easy to do it."
He said the prevailing attitude of most developing countries was that they would get something from the talks, but were reluctant in turn to give concessions that are the normal part of trade negotiations. For US trade officials, Phillips said there probably "ought to be a certain amount of rethinking" in their approach to future farm talks.
Jack Roney, director of economics and policy analysis for the ASA, said the tortuous farm negotiations "underscored how basic food necessity is to countries." "There's something visceral about maintaining security of your food supply," he said.
Phillips said the talks were "fundamentally flawed" in being touted as a way to help reduce poverty in developing countries. This was the attitude of many countries throughout the negotiations and hindered the ability of trading powers to forge a compromise in the last ditch talks which foundered in Geneva.