The European Union was under pressure on Wednesday to accept lower barriers to farm goods as ministers from leading World Trade Organisation states (WTO) struggled for a breakthrough in global trade talks.
After the United States gave a fillip to the negotiations, which face an end-year deadline, by offering what it called "deep" cuts in its farm subsidies, Brussels faced intense calls to match the move and ease its stance on tariffs.
"There is movement, although insufficient," said Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, referring to the U.S. offer. "We hope it will induce the other big power to move on market access," he added.
The 148-member WTO needs to agree a blueprint for the final stage of its Doha Round in Hong Kong in December, but negotiations are snagged on a host of issues, of which agriculture is the most pressing.
Failure could kill the round, which has been touted as capable -- if successful -- of giving a multi-billion dollar boost to the world economy and lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
After months of marking time, a series of ministerial meetings that kicked off on Monday in Zurich, where the United States unveiled its subsidy offer, had given "real movement" to the talks, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Rob Portman said.
CONFLICTING DEMANDS
But the difficulties remain large. The United States and the European Union -- whose farmers are amongst the world's most protected -- face conflicting demands from trading partners, who urge more liberalisation and some of their own constituents who want fewer concessions.
Senator Saxby Chambliss, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, told U.S. negotiators on Tuesday they should not try to dictate to Congress how much they could spend on farmers.
In a similar vein, France's Trade Minister Christine Lagarde told the European Union's trade chief Peter Mandelson that he had overstepped the mark in agreeing to deepen subsidy cuts and to consider setting a cap on import tariffs.
Nevertheless, trade negotiators and analysts are clear that without further concessions by the EU on market access, the road to a deal on Doha at Hong Kong will be blocked.
"The EU is going to have to do its part. If it is going to sit on its existing positions then the Doha Round will fail," warned former USTR Clayton Yeutter in a telephone interview with Reuters.
But not all WTO members were happy with using small groups of countries as a means to drive the negotiations forward.
"It is unfortunate that .. (we) ... are not invited in representative numbers," said the G33 group, an alliance of developing countries with large but poor farming sectors.
On tariffs, diplomats said agreement was urgently needed on the type of cost-cutting formula to be used after which talk could focus on the figures.
"That is a political decision and let's hope it comes during these days of talks," said one developing country diplomat, referring to more meetings of small groups of trade ministers set for Wednesday.
Without a deal on tariff cuts, Washington says it cannot sell its subsidy plan to Congress and big developing nations such as Brazil say they cannot move on opening their markets for industrial goods, another key area of the round.
