EU chiefs reject move to revive trade talks

The European Union's trade and farm chiefs will not attend a meeting in Australia next month aimed at reviving stalled global trade talks, the EU executive said yesterday.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel and Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson have turned down an invitation from Mark Vaile, the Australian trade minister.

Ms Fischer Boel told farmers in Finland yesterday that she did not see a resumption of the so-called Doha talks, suspended last month, in the near future, despite positive soundings from a number of the EU's trading partners.

"To be honest, I do not expect to see such an opportunity [ for a resumption of talks] in the near future," Ms Boel said at an event in the Finnish town of Seinajoki.

The announcement by both commissioners and the comments of the Danish EU farm chief will come as a blow to Australia, which had hoped to revive the talks at a meeting in September to which it has invited ministers from 18 leading WTO countries.

Mr Vaile said both United States trade chief Susan Schwab and Mike Johanns, the US secretary of agriculture, would travel to his meeting, but that any breakthrough would need backing from both the EU and the US.

WTO chief Pascal Lamy was forced to suspend the free trade talks after the major powers failed to broker a deal on agriculture, which has been the most difficult area of negotiations.

The US refused further concessions in subsidy cuts, saying the EU and big developing countries were not offering enough compensation in the way of increased access to their farm markets for US goods.

But Ms Fischer Boel said the EU "was ready to go the extra mile" in Geneva by going beyond the agricultural offer it had put on the table last October.

"I am afraid to say that, for some of our trade partners, 'ambition' was strictly a one-way street," Ms Fischer Boel said.

Earlier this week, US president George Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair agreed that they would make "one final effort" to get the talks back on track.