WTO members make final effort to save talks

World Trade Organisation members were last night making an 11th-hour effort to rescue the Doha trade round, as the European Union faced near-total isolation in the 149-member body over its refusal to agree to a date for ending agricultural export subsidies.

In an attempt to avert the threat of breakdown at this week's six-day ministerial meeting, which ends tomorrow, Pascal Lamy, WTO director general, called an all-night negotiating session aimed at hammering out a draft declaration that would narrow wide rifts between governments.

Discussions yesterday were dominated by acrimonious exchanges between representatives of the United States and the European Union and in a sign that the EU negotiating position was under strain, Irish and French governments called an emergency meeting of EU agriculture ministers to firm up their oppositions to providing dates for an end to subsidies.

With just two days left in the meeting, WTO chief Pascal Lamy began to circulate proposals for a final agreement on which delegates could reach some sort of compromise. In one key issue, a revision of the section on agricultural trade suggested 2010 as a date for elimination of all export subsidies - government funds paid to domestic producers to promote exports - according to documents obtained by journalists yesterday. EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson criticised US negotiating tactics and said the prospects for agreement were diminishing. "I think that some people in Hong Kong are in danger of losing sight of their strategic objectives," he said.

The problem, according to EU negotiators, is an exclusive focus by the US on the issue of EU export subsidies. In May of 2004, the EU gave an open-ended commitment to export subsidies for agricultural produce as a contribution to reaching a final agreement, but is seeking parallel commitments from the US before it will agree a date.

"It hardly adds to the ambition of the conference for the EU to commit to a date if other countries' subsidies are left hanging in the air... I would find it hard to sign up to such a lack of ambition and so I think we are all going to have to think long and hard before this meeting ends on Sunday," said Mr Mandelson.

Mr Mandelson said that any movement from the EU was unlikely to result in any further concessions from the US side.

Senior US trade representatives continued to insist that the EU position was blocking progress. "Unless we see progress in agriculture, it is very hard to imagine being able to make the kind of progress across the board, in areas like services and non-agricultural market access and other areas, that will be necessary for a truly robust and comprehensive development agreement," a US source said.

But Minister of State Conor Lenihan said that some success had been achieved. "We've already won solid commitments on aid for trade for poorer countries. Japan is committing €12 billion and the US and EU are committing over €2 billion each," he said. He said that a priority would be to ensure that at the minimum they would agree to a deal for the world's poorest 50 countries. "What's needed is for other industrial countries to move on market access for the poorest countries. If the conference does only that, I would deem it a success."