EU farm chief says bilateral talks can't match WTO

BRUSSELS, June 21 (Reuters) The collapse of talks between trade powers today represented ''a bad day for the multilateral system'' which can never be offset by bilateral deals, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said.

''Some believe that these opportunities can be recuperated through bilateral deals,'' she said after the European Union, the United States, Brazil and India failed to find a breakthrough in World Trade Organization negotiations.

''I have to disappoint them. They are wrong. The EU will never be able to offer anything at the bilateral level of the order we were prepared to do at the multilateral level,'' she said in a statement.

Fischer Boel did not refer to any country specifically.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim was quoted in Brazilian newspapers this week as saying that once the WTO talks were over, bilateral negotiations involving his country would resume and could prove more effective in cutting trade barriers.

The EU and the Mercosur group of South American countries, which includes Brazil, began negotiations for a trade deal in 2000. But they are on hold pending the outcome of the global negotiations at the WTO.

Brazil, the world's new agricultural export power, and other developing countries are seeking to bring down farm import tariffs in the EU and farm subsidies in the United States.

Brussels and Washington want countries like Brazil and India to lower barriers to their markets in manufactured goods like cars and chemicals, as well as services and agriculture.

The EU has launched negotiations for bilateral trade deals with South Korea and countries in South East Asia in May and intends to do the same with India soon. But it says the WTO negotiations are its priority.

REUTERS DS RAI2350