Divide in US Cong threatens trade deal: Brazil

Washington, Feb 17: Divisions in the US Congress on international trade could jeopardise chances for a breakthrough in world trade talks, Brazil's top negotiator said on Friday.

''It will be very difficult to get all participants in this negotiation to put all the chips on the table when the final package is under the risk of being unraveled by a rejection in the Congress,'' said Roberto Carvalho de Azevedo, head of economic affairs at Brazil's Foreign Ministry.

''People do not want to negotiate twice or three times,'' Azevedo told a panel including officials from fellow trade heavyweights India, the European Union and United States.

A restart in recent weeks of the World Trade Organization's Doha round has fueled hopes that negotiators will be able to break a long-standing impasse on agricultural trade and clinch a new multilateral deal this year.

Overshadowing those hopes are deep divisions in the new Democratic-led Congress on the benefits of trade and on whether to renew the Bush administration's trade negotiating authority, which expires at the end of June.

Some Democrats want to see new trade deals do more to protect workers and the environment, and others remain unconvinced that trade benefits U.S. workers -- both of which could weaken a Doha deal's chances of passing Congress.

Azevedo cautioned that much depends on how negotiators fare in coming weeks as they examine one another's priorities on protecting specific products.

India, which has emerged as a spokesman for developing countries, is worried that commitments already made during five years of talks may slip away if no progress occurs soon, said Banashri Harrison, who heads commercial and trade affairs at the Indian Embassy in Washington.

That could threaten special breaks for the world's poorest countries or a decision to negotiate on the basis of duty ceilings rather than currently applied duties, Harrison said.

Harrison also said developing nations are increasingly worried that negotiators are losing sight of the round's mission to integrate poor countries into the world economy.

Angelos Pangratis, deputy chief of mission for the European Commission delegation in Washington, said the EU is committed to the round's development goals, but pointed out that extremely poor countries face difficulties competing on world commodity markets even with preferential market access, largely because they lack things like roads and other infrastructure.

Azevedo blamed most of those problems on developed countries' subsidies and tariffs.

Reuters

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