US president George W Bush, and European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, yesterday backed a final push to revive the stalled Doha round of world trade talks
The two leaders agreed during a meeting at the White House that the multilateral deal was "too important to fail", according to EU officials.
The meeting marked the highest-level effort to reach a deal at the World Trade Organisation since talks broke down in July over agricultural policy.
The round began in 2001 with plans to liberalise manufacturing and agricultural markets, but farm subsidies proved a sticking point for both the US and EU.
Mr Barroso said the two leaders had given "instructions to negotiators to come back with a solution as soon as possible".
Senior US and EU trade officials said they would now "intensify" talks in a bid to reach a breakthrough in mid-January that would pave the way for a deal with Brazil and India at this month's World Economic Forum in Davos.
The proposed deal would be a last-ditch attempt to revive the Doha round before a US law enhancing Mr Bush's authority to negotiate trade pacts expired this year. "We talked about the importance for Europe and the US to resolve any differences we have when it comes to the Doha round," Mr Bush said.
Mr Barroso added that the Doha talks were at "a defining moment". EU officials were also hopeful that Mr Bush, in searching for a legacy for the remainder of his term, would provide impetus to the trade talks and follow up his speech last year that the US "addiction to oil" must stop.
Mr Bush is concerned about his country's reliance on imported energy but many doubt that this concern will be translated into backing a global carbon emissions trading system.
The EU has already established such a trading system to meet its commitment to the Kyoto protocol, which sets a price for carbon permits. Several US states run similar schemes but there is no action at federal level.
Mr Barroso will tomorrow unveil a strategy to limit global warming to two degrees above 1990 levels. The EU will be asked to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020, and 50 per cent by 2050. It wants the rest of the developed world to cut 30 per cent. The Commission will also consult on including other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide, in the scheme after 2012.
However, the key to action might lie as much in Congress as the White House. Hopes on progress have been raised by the appointment of Californian senator Barbara Boxer to chair the environment committee. - ( Financial Times service)
