EU open to bilateral trade

The EU is poised to begin talks on regional and bilateral trade deals following the collapse of World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations.

The European Commission is expected to ask member states for a mandate to begin negotiations with Asian states such as India and South Korea in September. It may also seek to agree a regional trade deal with the 10 ASEAN states: Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore, Philippines, Brunei, Cambodia and Burma. However, agreeing a comprehensive trade deal with ASEAN states is complicated by the political situation in Burma, which is a military dictatorship.

India confirmed yesterday that it was open to agreeing a bilateral trade agreement with the EU. "We are looking at, we are examining, economic co-operation agreements with the European Union. We are looking at co-operation agreements with Japan," said Indian commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath.

EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson also floated the idea of pushing ahead with plans to improve trade relations with China, although he also emphasised the EU's continued commitment to the WTO round of talks that were suspended amid much acrimony on Monday.

The recriminations continued yesterday over which trading bloc was to blame for the collapse of the talks, which have been taking place for nearly five years. The US trade mission in Geneva accused the EU of issuing false statements at the end of the talks.

"Yesterday's statement by the EU alleging that the United States failed to show flexibility . . . and attempting to divert blame for the stalemate is false and misleading," said the mission in a statement. The statement also said it hoped the "blamesmanship" by Brussels would not jeopardise the "few chances left" of reviving the WTO talks.

At a press conference in Brussels, Mr Mandelson said the US had been asking too much from others in exchange for doing too little themselves. He said the EU's offer of an average cut of 50 per cent to its farm import tariffs - up from its previous offer of 39 per cent - "is hardly putting nothing on the table."

Mr Mandelson did offer an olive branch saying he believed US president George Bush was committed to free trade.