Global Policy Forum

By Paul Geitner

A deal for new talks to free up global commerce moved within grasp Wednesday after the European Union accepted a compromise on agriculture.

But India's refusal at World Trade Organization discussions to budge on issues key to developing countries kept the accord tantalizingly out of reach.

Negotiators extended the conference into an extra, sixth day in the hopes of avoiding another embarrassing collapse like two years ago in Seattle.

``It's a last, best shot at trying to reach an agreement,'' WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said.

Many are counting on an agreement for new trade talks to inject confidence into a global economy careening toward recession. But efforts to reach consensus have been bedeviled by some of the same issues that led to the 1999 failure, including agriculture and charges from poor countries that some past promises have not been kept.

During all-night negotiating, diplomats managed a linguistic finesse on whether new trade talks should aim at ``phasing out'' farm export subsidies - as almost all of the WTO's 142 members want.

Only the European Union - most emphatically France - had called that wording unacceptable. France, the world's second-biggest agricultural exporter after the United States, has a militant farm lobby and presidential elections just six months away.

A compromise was found to keep the words ``phasing out'' in the declaration, but preceded by ``without prejudging the outcome of the negotiations,'' according to a Wednesday morning draft.

The 15 EU nations agreed to the pact after a break to allow the French to consult with Paris.

In return, other countries were willing to accept EU demands that the new talks consider some environmental issues, negotiators said. For example, the EU wants to clarify how agreements like the Kyoto accord on global warming relate to the WTO, and whose rules would take precedence in case of conflict.

But India was refusing to go along, said Sergio Marchi, Canada's ambassador to the WTO.

``We have to help India understand that there's much more to lose without a deal,'' he said.

Indian officials heading into a heads of delegation meeting at midday refused comment.

Developing countries have resisted references to environmental protection because they fear such standards would be used as a cover to keep their goods out of the EU.

India also wants rich countries, mainly the United States and Canada, to agree to quicker reductions in limits on imports of textiles.

The United States, which has already compromised on poor countries' access to patented drugs and by agreeing to a review of antidumping rules, says it has conceded everything it can without the approval of Congress.

``There is an offer on the table and India has to say yes or no. The U.S. said it can't go there,'' Marchi said.

The new draft also includes talks in some areas that the EU wanted but had been previously rejected by developing countries, mainly because they said they did not yet have the capacity to tackle them.

They include rules protecting investment; assuring the equal application of antitrust policy; making government purchasing more transparent and easing red tape at customs offices.

Negotiations on these issues will not start for at least two years, however.

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