WTO's Lamy sees 'good will' in US Congress on trade

WASHINGTON, Apr 26 (Reuters) Key US lawmakers appear willing to do their part to keep world trade talks alive if negotiators can achieve a long-awaited breakthrough soon, the head of the World Trade Organization said.

''I delivered to them a message which is roughly the following one: We're nearing crunch time in the Doha round'' after more than five years of talks, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said yesterday near the end of three days of meetings with business groups, lawmakers and Bush administration officials.

At this critical stage in the negotiations, some countries are waiting for a signal from the United States that it will remain engaged in the talks, Lamy said.

They have doubts because the White House's trade promotion authority (TPA) expires at the end of June, he said.

They ''interpret the expiry of TPA as a possibility for the US to sort of move from riding gear to parking gear'' in the Doha negotiations, Lamy said.

That legislation, also known as fast track, allows the White House to negotiate trade agreements that Congress must approve or reject without making changes.

It's considered vital to US participation in trade talks because other countries could not be expected to negotiate seriously if they knew Congress could change the final deal.

President George W Bush barely won trade promotion authority in 2002 when Republicans controlled Congress and his popularity was much higher than it is now.

Renewal of the controversial legislation was thrown into doubt after Democrats -- many of whom are wary of trade agreements -- won control of Congress last year.

But Lamy, who met with lawmakers responsible for trade and agriculture legislation, said members of Congress in both parties responded positively to his plea for the United States to move toward renewal of the fast track legislation.

''My feeling is that they were receptive to this message -- that there is good will from the major players on this, although they still have to gather their troops, their votes and we're not there obviously. But I felt a good receptivity on both sides on the camp,'' Lamy said.

At the same time, US lawmakers stressed that achieving a long-awaited breakthrough in the talks would make it ''much easier'' to win renewal of TPA, Lamy said.

The world trade talks remain mired over sharp differences on how much to cut farm subsidies and tariffs, as well as how much to open markets for industrial goods and services.

The so-called G4 countries -- Brazil, India, the United States and European Union -- set a new goal of reaching a deal by the end of this year.

To meet that target, a breakthrough on agriculture and manufacturing is needed soon because it could take seven to eight months to put together a final deal, Lamy said.

The Bush administration would like lawmakers to renew fast track for as long as possible, but that will be decided with Congress, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters in a joint news conference with Lamy.

The White House's immediate focus has been to resolve labour and other concerns blocking approval of bilateral trade deals with Peru, Panama and Colombia.

''We're making progress'' in those talks, Schwab said. ''It would be great'' to get a deal this week, she said.

If that occurs, the next logical step would be to talk about a fast track extension, she said.

REUTERS TB BST0708