Brinkmanship not breakthroughs dominate crucial WTO trade talks

GENEVA  - High-stakes brinkmanship took hold on day three of crucial WTO trade talks on Wednesday, with both advanced and developing countries demanding concessions to avert another failure.
There were hopes that the late arrival of Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, a leading emerging country representative, would spur progress but he appeared in little mood to give ground.
“This is a round where developed countries have to put something on the table,” he told reporters, adding that “real” cuts in farm subsidies and tariffs were needed from rich countries rather than empty proposals.
The EU and the US have both made opening gambits with offers to reduce trade-distorting assistance to their farmers and are now calling for steps by developing nations to open their markets for industrial products.
The WTO has convened a meeting of about 30 leading trade negotiators this week with the aim of mapping out a deal to conclude the long-delayed Doha round of global trade talks.
The Doha round began seven years ago with the aim of helping poor countries, but it has been delayed by disputes between developed and developing nations over subsidies and tariffs for farm and industrial products.
The brinkmanship fits a pattern that has seen several previous meetings since 2001 collapse without a deal.
“Progress has been modest until now,” WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy conceded in comments to the organisation’s 153 members, his spokesman Keith Rockwell said Wednesday.
But Rockwell suggested there had been an “intensification” of talks during and since a ministerial meeting late on Tuesday.
In London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that the talks were at “the 11th hour” and “a critical moment.”