Growing frustration among trade ministers and a warning of crisis from the head of the World Trade Organisation yesterday greeted yet another day of deadlock in the Doha round of global trade talks.
Several dozen trade ministers travelled to Geneva for a weekend of meetings on farm and goods trade beginning yesterday. But the first day quickly produced a familiar stand-off: the US and other farm exporters, which want access to other countries' agriculture markets, clashed with the EU, India and others, who said the US should first offer further farm subsidy cuts.
A spokesman for Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, said it might be more useful to schedule another meeting in July than risk acrimony arising from days of fruitless talks. "We are prepared to stay here for as long as it takes, but if there is no prospect of real progress we would question whether it is really worth it," he said.
The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, earlier shrugged off criticism that Ireland's refusal to consider new cuts in EU farm tariffs may doom the world trade talks to failure.
He has also issued a public rebuke to the EU's chief negotiator Peter Mandelson over his handling of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks taking place in Geneva.
"I disagree with Mr Mandelson," said Mr Ahern about the trade commissioner's statement on Thursday that Europe could make a new offer on agricultural market access.
"Our understanding of these issues is that we have made an enormous amount of changes in advance over the past 12 months or so and we do not see the need to go further," he said on a trip to Helsinki to discuss Finland's presidency of the EU.
France and Ireland are two EU states that have been publicly criticised by some commentators for holding up the WTO talks to liberalise trade by protecting their farming sectors.
In defence of Ireland's record on making concessions on agriculture, Mr Ahern pointed to the sugar reforms implemented this year that will cost thousands of jobs across the Republic.
"We are the only country in Europe to close down our entire [ sugar] beet industry to conform with WTO rules, an industry that has been in Ireland for more than 100 years. So I think our desire to help has been well shown."
However, Mr Ahern suggested that a significant new US offer to cut subsidies to its own farmers could offer the EU some room to improve its offer on agriculture.
"Obviously if the Americans were to make major concessions to catch up with all the concessions we have already made then we might look again," he said.
