MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

EU admits “slight room” for concessions in trade talks

The European Union's Agriculture Commissioner said the EU still had ??slight room'' to offer more concessions in key world trade talks if others, notably the United States, were also ready to compromise more to open up agricultural markets.

??We still have a slight room for manoeuvre within our mandate and if others move we will use this possibility, because I think a deal at this stage is crucial,'' Mariann Fischer Boel told reporters after EU talks among farm ministers.

Fischer Boel appealed to Washington to offer more concessions, especially in cutting domestic support to farmers ahead of the June 27-28 ministerial trade talks planned at the World Trade Organization in Geneva.

"We're willing to stay if a deal is in sight", said Fischer Boel who together with Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson are leading negotiations on behalf of the 25-nation EU bloc.

??We still have a slight room for manoeuvre within our mandate and if others move we will use this possibility, because I think a deal at this stage is crucial."

The talks next week are aimed at getting agreement on precise formulas for cutting farm and industrial tariffs and subsidies, a key step toward concluding the WTO Doha round, launched in 2001, by the end of the year.

Fischer Boel said that a new draft paper on tariff formulas was expected at the Geneva talks and anticipated EU trade and agriculture ministers would also be at the talks for possible consultations if the EU had to change its negotiating mandate.

However any trade deal needs the backing of all 25 EU governments and France has been loath to offer more concessions in opening up the EU agricultural sector.

The EU and the US have both come under heavy criticism by poorer nations for not doing enough to open their markets to their farm products, while the two trade giants want major developing countries like Brazil and India to liberalize their industrial and services sectors.