Bush expresses disappointment at the collapse of trade talks

Washington, June 22 (UNI) US President George W Bush has voiced disappointment at the collapse of the Doha Round of trade liberalisation negotiations in Potsdam, Germany, accusing Brazil and India of sticking for their own interests at the expense of poorer countries.

''The president is disappointed that certain countries are blocking an opportunity to expand trade,'' White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

''Large economies like Brazil and India should not stand in the way of progress for smaller, poor developing nations - but that appears to be what happened in Germany this week,''Fratto said.

He said the United States had shown flexibility in trade talks in Germany but the deal under consideration was not ''in the best interest of the United States and certainly not something the US Congress would expect us to agree to.'' ''We remain committed to achieving a successful Doha round,''Fratto said. The White House statement followed the break down of the critical four-party talks on the issue in Potsdam, Germany yesterday.

Earlier, in Potsdam, Germany, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said India and Brazil demanded huge cuts in the developed countries' farm subsidies but refused to cut import tariffs that protect their domestic industries.

Despite the collapse of the latest talks among key World Trade Organization (WTO) governments, the United States is not giving up on multilateral trade negotiations, US officials say.

''The United States remains deeply committed to providing leadership to help advance the World Trade Organization and the rules-based multilateral trading system from which we benefit greatly,'' said US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns in a joint statement.

The two officials said "the United States is deeply disappointed that the talks among senior officials of the United States, the European Union (EU), Brazil and India designed to revive the stalled WTO process broke down when the Brazilian and Indian delegations walked away from the negotiations.'' The talks within the G4 group were intended to narrow the differences, mostly on agricultural issues, that have hampered the negotiations almost from their 2001 launch.

At present the issue is how far developed countries should go in cutting their farm subsidies and lowering their tariffs and to what degree the developing countries should open their markets to industrial goods, farm products and services.

The lack of progress on specifics related to those issues and many missed deadlines prompted the suspension of the WTO negotiations known as the Doha Development Round in July 2006.

Briefing the press yesterday via telephone, Schwab and Johanns said the United States had demonstrated flexibility both in its willingness to reduce its own trade-distorting farm subsidies and in the level of tariff cuts it expected from other countries.

Nevertheless, Johanns said, he and Schwab were surprised by the decision of Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath because the talks within the G4 were making progress in recent months on many controversial issues.

Those issues included food aid and sensitive products that would be subject to different rules than most other products.

''We feel like the rug was pulled from under our feet,'' Johanns said.

Amorim and Nath blamed the United States and the EU and their 'numbers' for the collapse of the talks, according to news reports.

UNI