USTR Schwab eyes dramatic progress in WTO talks

WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) Months of behind-the-scenes work could lead to potentially dramatic progress in world trade talks next week when top trade officials from the United States, European Union, Brazil and India meet in Potsdam, Germany, the chief US negotiator said today.

''We're really hoping we can move the ball forward and ideally move it forward dramatically,'' US Trade Representative Susan Schwab told Reuters in an interview. ''The United States is committed to doing our share and then some'' in order to reach a final deal in the talks, she said.

With the US presidential election approaching and the White House's ''fast track'' trade negotiating already effectively expired, many believe next week's G4 trade ministers meeting is the last chance for a breakthrough in the Doha round of world trade talks launched in November 2001.

Schwab rejected that notion, but said she hoped the G4 trading partners would be able to make progress on the ''contours of a deal'' that they could recommend to the broader membership of the World Trade Organization.

''We have been able to demonstrate that if you keep at it and you're willing to roll up your sleeves and get into an excruciating level of detail, you can actually make progress.

And we've been making progress,'' Schwab said.

However, she emphasized that any breakthrough in the negotiations must include new market openings for services and manufacturing in addition to resolving difficult agricultural subsidy and tariff concerns that have blocked progress almost since the talks began.

Schwab also said she was worried recent demands from some developing countries that they be spared from making any real cuts in their manufacturing tariffs could ''be the death knell of the (Doha) development round.'' ''I'm hoping that the serious players in this negotiation understand if you want a development outcome, you really have to cut into applied rates,'' Schwab said.

Reuters DKS VP0235