GENEVA, July 28 (Chinese media) -- A key effort to salvage the Doha Round of global trade talks was clouded by a new dispute on Monday as India had led a call for more protection of farmers in developing countries from surging imports.
The India's de
The mechanism would allow developing countries to raise agriculture tariffs to protect domestic farmers in the event of an import surge.
Ministers from over 30 major members in the World Trade Organization (WTO) entered their eighth day of bargaining Monday, aiming to bridge lingering differences on agriculture and industrial goods with a view to wrapping up the long-stalled Doha Round this year.
The bid has proven to be a difficult one in the past week, if not impossible, and much remained unresolved as the talks entered the second week.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab accused emerging economies of delaying an agreement.
"We had a path on Friday for a successful outcome on Friday night. It wasn't perfect, but it was delicately balanced and had a strong endorsement," she told reporters after the talks.
"Unfortunately a few emerging markets have decided that somehow they want to rebalance it in favor of one or another issue," she said.
"That was a very delicate balance that was struck. You pull one thread, it threatens to unravel," she added.
Under proposals tabled by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, developing countries could use the SSM to protect their farming sector.
The proposed mechanism allows tariffs to increase if imports surge over 40 percent, but India said the threshold was too high for the developing country to save its small farmers and insisted on 10 percent.
India's Trade Minister Kamal Nath said on Sunday that its position was supported by 100 developing countries, which were also concerned about the survival of their domestic farming sector in face of a sharp rise of global food prices.
The G33 group of developing economies along with the African Group and others -- numbering around 80 in total -- said special safeguard measures became more necessary amid food price hike.
"These safeguards are at the core of the development outcome of the (Doha) Round as they involve the concerns of food security, livelihood security and rural development in developing countries," they said.
"In a spirit of constructive engagement, we are willing to show some flexibility in order to obtain a reasonable outcome," they added.
However, not all developing countries were happy with India's demand, notably Latin American economies like Paraguay and Uruguay, whose farm exports are concentrated on specific products.
The new dispute emerged after a tentative breakthrough was achieved last Friday, reviving hope of reaching a deal on agriculture and industrial goods in the extended week of discussions.
As another encouraging sign, the European Union (EU) and Latin American countries moved closer on Sunday to a deal on their long-standing trade dispute over banana, hopefully removing a major hurdle on the way to a global trade deal.
Under a preliminary agreement reached early today, the EU would reduce its import duty on bananas from Latin American countries to114 euros (179 U.S. dollars) per ton by 2016 after an initial cut to 148 euros in 2009 from 176 euros now.
The figure is slightly lower than a compromised offer presented by World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy, which had required Brussels to gradually reduce its import tariff on bananas to 116 euros per ton by 2015.
The deal also contained a so-called "peace clause," which committed Latin American countries to ending legal challenges in exchange for lower tariff.
The banana issue, one of the world's oldest trade disputes, was dated back dozens of years. It was centered on the EU import rules for bananas, involving two groups of developing countries, namely the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and Latin America.
ACP countries, which are mainly former European colonies, have been given duty-free access to the EU markets when it comes to a wide range of products including bananas.
However, Latin American countries have not enjoyed the unilateral preferential treatment, and they alleged that the discriminatory practice has put their bananas at a disadvantage on the EU markets when competing with their ACP peers.
After successfully challenging the EU's banana import regime within the WTO framework several times, the Latin American countries now demand fair treatment.
Though the EU and Latin America could sign a deal between themselves, it would risk angering ACP countries and threaten the current crucial bid for a breakthrough in the Doha Round.
Cameroon, speaking on behalf of ACP countries, said Sunday the deal between the EU and Latin American countries was unacceptable in its current form, warning there was a "real risk" of the dispute blocking the wider talks.
"There is a real risk but trade negotiations should not be about blackmail," he told reporters before going into a meeting with EU officials. "We want healthy discussions."
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