The European Union stepped up pressure today for a global trade deal by the end of this week, warning that if World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks fail it could strike a blow to the international economy.
The caution, from EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, echoed views voiced earlier this week by US Trade Representative Mr Robert Zoellick who also told developing countries Washington would not go for a deal that fell short of what it wanted.
"If we don't achieve an agreement, that would send out a negative signal to the world economy, something that we can do without," Mr Lamy told the European Parliament in a videolink from Geneva where he is taking part in the talks.
On Monday Mr Zoellick, also now in Geneva, said the US "will not accept a deal ... simply for the sake of a deal". Any accord must provide "substantial new openings for trade in agriculture, goods and services," he added.
Mediators in the WTO's stalled Doha Round - aimed at eventually concluding a new global trade treaty - had been due to make a fresh bid for a breakthrough today, but diplomats warned the timing could slip.
They are struggling to get agreement on an overall framework for the next and possible final stage of the Doha Round, launched in 2001 but effectively derailed since the collapse of a WTO meeting of trade ministers in Mexico last September.
The central problem is farm trade reform, and the future of produce export support. Deep differences persist on the issue between North and South, and between the US and the 25-nation EU.
WTO chief Mr Supachai Panitchpakdi and the head of its executive General Council, Japanese ambassador Mr Shotaro Oshima, whose first blueprint met fierce criticism, had promised a new text by Wednesday in a bid to find common ground.
But Mr Supachai told reporters that if that were delayed until tomorrow there would still be time for agreement by Friday.
The depth of the farm problem was reflected in comments from Argentina's WTO envoy Alfredo Chiaradia. "In the past week we have not moved at all," he said.
The 147 WTO states have given themselves until the close of play on July 30th for a deal setting out guidelines for more detailed future negotiations on farm and industrial goods, services and a customs code.
The current draft calls for the end to farm export subsidies, substantial cuts in other forms of aid by wealthy countries to their farmers, and greater market access for both developing and developed countries.
But poorer nations argue that it gives the big trade powers leeway to protect their high-cost farmers from imports, while helping them dump their subsidised produce abroad and destroy the livelihood of struggling farmers in the South.
"We are prepared to give more market access to farm products but not to subsidies," said Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Mr Kamal Nath, referring to demands from rich states for developing countries to open up their domestic markets.