The United States and European Union said today they would open up their farm sectors to secure a new global trade deal, but called on big emerging countries like Brazil, India and China to do their bit too.
As make-or-break trade talks got underway at the World Trade Organisation, developing countries insisted that current proposals for a deal in the long-running Doha round were still skewed in favour of rich nations.
"We know we're going to need to make further contributions than the many contributions we already have on the table. We are looking forward to seeing the contributions of others, including these most signficant emerging markets," US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy called ministers to Geneva this week to seek a breakthrough in the Doha round, launched in late 2001 to open up world trade and help poor countries grow by exporting more.
A deal would see the United States cut its farm subsidies that poor countries say discourage their farmers from producing, fuelling the current food crisis. The European Union would open its protected market for food by lowering tariffs.
In return rich-country businesses would get more access to developing-country markets for industrial goods and services.
Mr Lamy said an agreement this week would send a positive signal to global financial markets rocked by the US credit crisis and rising food and energy prices.
He told delegates a deal "could in these circumstances provide a strong push to stimulate economic growth, providing better prospects for development and ensuring a stable and more predictable trading system," WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said.
Today's talks consisted of a general review of positions and did not get down to details in the core areas of agriculture and industrial goods, and the United States did not make a new offer on farm support, ministers said.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said the United States was likely to name a figure tomorrow.
"I'm sure it will come tomorrow... Otherwise, it will be difficult to move a bit forward," she told reporters.
The latest negotiating draft sees the United States cutting its most trade-distorting subsidies to $13-16.4 billion.
Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said developing countries had previously proposed a US. ceiling of $12 billion, below that range and closer to current outlays of approximately $7 billion. High prices have cut U.S. farm programme spending dramatically in recent years.
"We are looking for a concrete offer on the table ... We are looking for U.S. leadership on this issue," Pangestu said.
Ms Schwab said countries were showing a new willingness to discuss what they could do rather than what they could not.
"When we... address the domestic support issue, it will address our desire to invite others to also participate in a 'can do' type of conversation, instead of a 'can't do' conversation," Ms Schwab said.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the bloc's offer on farm tariff cuts could be deeper than the minimum proposed for rich countries.
"We are in a position to raise our average from 54 percent, which is what developing countries asked for, to 60 percent," Mandelson told reporters. "I am glad we've been able to do that. It shows our commitment to this round."
But officials said those figures included a not-yet-agreed deal on tropical products, and denied the EU was improving its offer, while EU and developing country ministers dismissed it.
India insisted that rich countries, who were seeking to shield their farmers from the full impact of liberalisation, should respect developing nations' calls for special treatment in agriculture.
"We are therefore looking at a few million farms in developed countries... versus hundreds of millions of subsistence farmers," Gopal Pillai, the top official in India's commerce ministry, told a news conference.
"We have not much room for compromise because it's a livelihood concern, not preserving the prosperity of rich farmers."
REUTERS