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We can bring back world trade talks: Brazilian president
2008-08-04
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - World trade talks have not failed and can still be revived, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted as he embarked Monday on efforts to bring the United States, India and China back to the table. "I don't believe that the Doha Round is yet a failure," Lula said in his weekly radio address broadcast Monday. His comments were recorded Sunday just before he left for a two-day visit to neighboring Argentina, where on Monday he was to speak with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. "I think there were difficulties, and in that difficulty it was better to stop to reflect how to continue," he said of the negotiations at the World Trade Organization in Geneva that ended last week. WTO chief Pascal Lamy had last Tuesday announced that the talks had "collapsed" after nine days of haggling. Differences between industrial countries and developing nations -- particularly between the United States and India -- were said by diplomats to have been the obstacle. Lamy has since said technical-level discussions left over from the WTO talks are in fact still simmering away. Lula noted the trade talks had been dragging on seven years before the Geneva session, which had been presented as a "make-or-break" moment. He added that there was still hope of fanning the embers of the negotiations back to life, and he was communicating with the US, Indian and Chinese leaders to get them on board. "I think there are still enormous possibilities to negotiate," he said. Lula said he spoke with US President George W. Bush on Saturday. "I was very clear with Bush that it is not possible that two countries as important as the United States and India, which are negotiating a nuclear agreement, can't find the conditions to make a deal on the issue of food, because there is very little remaining differences between them," Lula said. The Brazilian president said he also intended to speak with Chinese President Hu Jintao when he travels to Beijing on the weekend to attend the opening of the Olympic Games, and by telephone with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Brazil stands much to gain from a global trade pact. As one of the world's biggest exporters of agricultural goods and ethanol biofuel, it acted as de facto leader for the G20 group of developing nations including India and China trying to knock down wealthy nation's farm subsidies and import tariffs in the sector. The South American powerhouse played hardball as it forced the United States and Europe towards concessions in return for promises to allow greater access for their industrialized goods and services. By several accounts, obstinate divergence between the United States and India over cotton scuppered the negotiations, despite agreement being found on 19 of the 20 other trade topics hammered out in the WTO. While Brazil is now doing all it can to restart the talks, observers believe nothing will happen until the US elections in November are out of the way. There are also elections in India next May to consider. "It seems practically impossible to conclude negotiations before the end of the year," a senior WTO official in Europe told AFP. Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said bluntly: "The talks will not be able to resume until after the American elections."
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