MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula da Silva receives Paulson with long list of complaints

US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson

US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson received a long list of complaints during his visit Wednesday to Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said Finance Minister Guido Mantega who acted as the spokesperson of the meeting in Brasilia.

President Lula reiterated developing countries insistence that only a greater opening and access to the US and European Union markets for farm produce will save the World Trade Organization Doha Round talks on global trade. "Brazil hasn't given up the Doha Round" said Mantega who revealed that in the last week President Lula da Silva had talked with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in an attempt to unlock the Doha round global trade talks. Mantega said Treasury Secretary Paulson agreed that the Doha Round can still be rescued from definitive failure, but insisted that developing countries should be more flexible regarding industrial goods and services. However Paulson admitted that the US is intent in elevating the authorized farm subsidies cap to 17 billion US dollars and that the less developed countries would like to see the limit at 12 billion US dollars. "But it's a sensitive issue for the US because US farmers have a strong political representation", added Mantega. Other issues which President Lula da Silva addressed and complained about included US duties on Brazilian sugar cane ethanol imports and the current system of representation and nomination in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. "Brazil is convinced that emerging economies, some of them larger than those from long established developed countries, must have a greater say as well as more influence in the nomination of World Bank and IMF top officials", said Mantega.