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GENEVA, Oct 13 (AFP): US Trade Representative Rob Portman yesterday rejected the latest offer from the European Union to cut tariffs on agricultural imports, which had been offered as part of an elusive deal to break down trade barriers.
On the sidelines of World Trade Organisation talks here late Tuesday, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson reportedly proposed tariff cuts that would lead to an average decrease of 24.5 per cent in the 25-nation bloc's import duties for farm produce.
Portman told reporters the step was insufficient.
"That's not adequate. That does not even come close to the Uruguay round cut of 36 per cent. I don't think anybody considers that adequate," the senior US trade official said.
Mandelson made no mention of the offer in a press conference Tuesday.
But French Trade Minister Christine Lagarde revealed that the EU had made an offer that included a further cut in the number of farm goods that could be classified as "sensitive products" in WTO jargon.
Trading nations are allowed to impose higher tariffs for a restricted list of items they regard as sensitive for their national economies.
The overall number of EU agricultural products covered by tariffs currently stands at 2,000. Under terms of the latest EU offer, eight per cent of those items would be on the restricted list and would be eligible for higher tariffs, down from a previously offered 10 per cent.
US officials have said they want the restricted list to be no more than one per cent of the existing total.
A failure in the negotiations this week could jeopardise the WTO's crucial ministerial conference in Hong Kong in just over 60 days' time.
The 148 trading nations in the WTO are desperate to avoid a replay of their 2003 split between rich and poor countries. Agriculture has been at heart of divisions between trading nations as they struggle to reach agreement on a deal envisioned in the Doha declaration, adopted in the Qatari capital in 2001.
Reuters adds: Trade ministers from leading nations failed yesterday to make a breakthrough in troubled farm talks, the cornerstone of a hoped-for global trade pact, with many blaming the European Union.
But they agreed to meet again next week in Geneva to have another try as pressure builds to ensure that a blueprint for a successful conclusion of the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round can be agreed at a December meeting in Hong Kong.
The United States, whose offer of deep farm subsidy cuts this week gave new momentum to the four-year-old talks, accused Brussels of not responding with a decisive move on tariffs.
The ministers-from the European Union, United States, Brazil, India and Australia-have been spearheading the hunt for accords on agriculture which must be reached to open the door to a wider deal including services and industrial goods.
Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile said that despite the lack of movement on market access, or import barriers, negotiators were getting down to the hard bargaining.
Failure could kill the round, which has been touted as capable-if successful-of giving a multibillion-dollar boost to the world economy and lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
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