US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said in Honoi today that the Doha
Round of trade talks can only be resumed after some key issues such as new
market access to agricultural goods are tackled.
"No single country or group of countries will be able to unilaterally put the
Doha Round back on track.," she told a press conference on the sideline of the
on-going ministerial meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
"No artificial deadline or high-profile ministerial meetings will do the
trick," she said, stressing that the only thing to put the Doha Round back on
track is that all the players in the talks, being developed or developing
countries, are willing to stretch beyond what they want now.
First, new trade flows in the agricultural goods trade through new market
access is key, she noted.
"We are talking about meaningful new market access and trade flows for
agricultural goods," she said.
The US official said that the reduction of trade subsidies by the EU and the
US and new trade flows of manufactured goods and services are also key elements
for making a breakthrough.
The Doha Round talks, which have stumbled nearly five years, were suspended
in July due to bitter difference among major WTO members, particularly on
agricultural issues.
The on-going APEC ministerial meeting, which prepares for the subsequent APEC
economic leaders meeting, are giving top priority to the issue of restarting the
Doha Round, she confirmed.
Schwab said that despite the difficulties on resuming the Doha Round, the
U.S. is still looking forward to expanding its trade ties with the APEC
economies as two-thirds of the U.S. goods and services take place in the region,
with 1.6 trillion US dollars of annual trade.
On the voting by the U.S House of Representative against granting "permanent
normal trade relations" (PNTR) status to Vietnam, she said that the Bush
administration was disappointed but was confident the bill will pass when the
Congress resumed meeting early December.
APEC has 21 member economies, including China, the United States, Russia,
Japan, Vietnam, Singapore and Australia, which account for more than a third of
the world's population, over 50 percent of world's GDP and in excess of 40
percent of world trade.
