France says could make WTO trade talks proposals

Paris, Aug 10: France could put forward proposals to revive collapsed world trade talks, Trade Minister Christine Lagarde said on Thursday, calling for a debate on whether to exclude agriculture from the negotiations.

In the wake of the suspension of the Doha talks last month, Lagarde said now might be the time to deal with the thorny issue of agriculture separately so as to allow progress in other areas, such as industry and services.

Asked if France was considering proposals to relaunch the Doha negotiations, Lagarde said: ''It's not just France, for as you know in the WTO we speak through the European Union and its the European Commission that represents member states.

''But our making proposals cannot be ruled out,'' she said in an RTL radio interview.

Lagarde later told a news conference that agriculture was one of the main stumbling blocks to an overall accord but said the subject could not just be dropped.

''There is no question of putting the agriculture dossier to one side,'' she told the briefing, called to publish the latest French trade figures.

''What I note is that the agriculture dossier crystallises all the irritations, all the difficulties of the negotiations, and that ... perhaps we have to rethink the parameters of the negotiations and modalities of the negotiations,'' she said.

''Would it not be better to reshape the negotiations and think again about agricultural questions, and how to better deal with them, without prejudicing the interests of development and those of developed countries in the industrial and service sectors?'' she asked.

The European Union, the United States and the ASEAN grouping of southeast Asian nations are already pushing ahead with bilateral trade accords after the Doha-round trade talks were suspended last month, Lagarde noted.

The Doha round was launched in late 2001 with the aim of boosting economic growth and lifting millions out of poverty.

But it struggled from the start and was already well behind schedule when talks collapsed, with the EU and the U.S. trading blame.

Reuters