US EU swap blame for trade talks failure

GENEVA, July 25 (Reuters) The United States and the European Union swapped blame for the suspension of global trade talks with Washington accusing Brussels of ''false and misleading'' statements.

World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy called a halt yesterday to a nearly five-year push for a free trade deal.

The EU and the United States, the world's biggest trade powers, have long accused one another of not making the kind of concessions to keep the talks on track. But after the collapse of the WTO process, the accusations have grown more heated.

EU Trade Commission Peter Mandelson yesterday said that Washington produced no new proposals for cutting farm subsidies, prompting a rebuke from Washington today.

''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,'' the US trade mission in Geneva said in a statement.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab has said Washington would have made a further offer on farm subsidy cuts had the EU and India been prepared to lower tariffs to let US farmers export more.

The US statement said the EU had offered ''even less market access than originally thought'' and the United States hoped 'blamesmanship'' by Brussels would not jeopardise the ''few chances left'' of reviving the talks.

Mandelson repeated his view that blame lay at Washington's door.

''The US has been asking too much from others in exchange for doing too little themselves,'' he told a news conference in Brussels. ''Now the U.S. seems to be saying to the rest of world: we are right, you are isolated.'' Mandelson insisted the EU's offer of an average cut of 50 percent to its farm import tariffs - up from its previous offer of 39 percent - ''is hardly putting nothing on the table.'' India and Brazil have also suggested Washington was most at fault for the failure of the WTO negotiations.

Mandelson said he did not think the Doha row would impact transatlantic trade issues, such as a state aid dispute involving rival plane makers Airbus and Boeing.

''You can have the fiercest arguments about policy ... but then you can leave the room and have a perfectly amicable cup of tea or glass of wine and talk about other matters where you have shared interests,'' he said.

REUTERS PKS ND1904