Powerful Nations Begin Talks on the Global Treaty in Geneva

GENEVA: The world's most powerful trading nations went into talks yesterday over a long-delayed global trade treaty, with little apparent hope of success as key negotiators maintain hardline positions that threaten to wreck the chances of any agreement.

More than 60 ministers will be meeting in Geneva over the next few days in a bid to reach a deal. According to the 149-nation World Trade Organization, the deal could add billions of dollars to the global economy and lift millions of people out of poverty.

However, the start of official negotiations was marred by squabbling even before ministers all sat round the same table.

After meetings of key negotiating blocs on Thursday, developing countries has accused rich nations of shirking their duties while the Europeans were publicly split over sensitive cuts to farm tariffs.

''Somehow the gaps don't seem to diminish,'' Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Thursday of the differences that have put the Doha round of trade talks two years behind schedule. ''If anything, if I look backwards, maybe to two or three months ago ... I have the impression that the gaps have widened, or at least become more rigid.''

The discussions began on Friday morning in the largest WTO gathering since a failed conference in Hong Kong in December.

The WTO's six most powerful members; the U.S., the EU, India, Brazil, Japan, and Australia; met late in the evening on Thursday in an attempt to bridge gaps before the negotiations widened. They also met on Friday.

''These meetings are forums in which negotiating partners clarify the limits of their negotiating mandate, explore potential areas of flexibility and try to bridge the gaps,'' said EU spokesman PeterPower on Friday.

Brazil, India and the United States stuck to hardline positions and the European Union seemed prepared to compromise.

EU trade chief, Peter Mandelson, suggested that the 25-nation bloc was ''prepared, if the circumstances are right, significantly to improve our offer in agricultural market access, moving towards and close to what the G-20 have asked for''. However, this suggestion was rejected by France and Austria.

According to the French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau, it would be ''a trap'' to open market access further.

As per both the EU and U.S., further cutbacks in farm support programs were dependent on developing countries opening up their markets to foreign competition in industries and services.

On the other hand, Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath threatened to leave the talks if the U.S. negotiating position remained intractable.