Top official says WTO farm deal may take weeks

GENEVA (Reuters) – A top U.S. trade official on Friday
played down the idea a WTO ministerial meeting at the end of
June was the deadline for a deal on global farm trade, saying
only that a pact must come in the “next several weeks.”

World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy
wants ministers to agree draft deals — or ‘modalities’ — on
industrial and agricultural goods at a meeting starting June
29.

But Jason Hafemeister, director for U.S. agriculture
negotiations, suggested the WTO had more time for accords
crucial to concluding its Doha round of free trade
negotiations, including issues such as services, by the end of
the year.

“Conventional wisdom is that we have got to make
substantial progress, certainly pass modalities, by this
summer,” Hafemeister told journalists.

“Whether that is June or July, I am not particular,” he
added.

The official, who is in Geneva for near non-stop WTO talks
on the farm dossier, said the United States still needed the
European Union (EU) and developing countries to agree to deeper
tariff cuts and greater market opening.

“Without market access we cannot have a balanced package in
any saleable sense anywhere,” Hafemeister said.

But he rejected criticism by the EU and developing
countries of the U.S. offer on farm subsidies, which they say
does not go far enough.

Hafemeister said numbers circulated at the WTO suggesting
there would be no real cuts were a “negotiating tactic.”

Washington’s plan, which offers to reduce permitted
spending on farm subsidies by 60 percent, would involve real
reform of U.S. agriculture spending, Hafemeister said.

As part of the build-up to the June 29 meeting, the
chairmen of the farm and the industrial goods’ negotiating
groups will present their respective draft texts aimed at
helping narrow differences.

They had been due on June 19, but diplomats said the date
was likely to slip to June 21.

The end-year deadline for concluding the Doha round, which
was launched in 2001, is set by next year’s expiry of U.S.
presidential powers to negotiate trade deals without having to
consult Congress every step of the way.