The EU and United States were pressed again over billions of dollars of aid they give to their farmers at trade talks with Brazil, Kenya and South Africa on Saturday, diplomats said. All sides hoped for progress in global commerce negotiations by the middle of the year after the collapse of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Cancun in late ’03, they added.

The envoys, who gathered in London to try and give a push to the stalled negotiations, discussed a number of areas including services, goods and development but the thorny issue of agriculture was a particular focus. “Due to a sensitivity of developing and developed countries, the emphasis was on agriculture,” one US trade official said.

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick hosted the meeting and invited the select group of developing nations because they are among the strongest critics of US and EU trade rules. Trade officials described the meeting as “constructive”. No agreement had been reached as the talks had been intended as “an exchange of ideas” rather than negotiations.

“There is an understanding that the window of opportunity to arrive where we should have been after Cancun is there between now and the end of June, July,” an EU official said. European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy led the EU delegation.

The trade representatives will meet again on the margins of a meeting of rich nations’ club the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris in May. The need for progress by mid-’04 is all the more urgent as officials believe the talks will be tough once the US presidential election campaign gets underway.

After that, Lamy is due to leave as the European Commission steps down in October. — Reuters

A new trade commissioner is not expected to be fully up to speed with the negotiations until early ’05.

The London meeting was the first time senior US and Brazilian trade envoys had met since Brazil won a WTO ruling against the US over US cotton subsidies. A spokesman for Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim said cotton was not discussed.