London meeting will bring key WTO negotiators together to prepare for April deadline

Trade negotiators from the EU, the US, Brazil, India, Japan and Australia will meet in London this week for two days of talks intended to move forward the ongoing World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha negotiations. With negotiators committed to resolving some key issues by the end of April 2006, this meeting will be an important chance for some of the major players to close the ground between them. The aim is to put trade at the service of development, create consensus and give impetus to the wider negotiations in Geneva. The European Union, which will chair the meeting, will be represented by Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said: "I am convening this meeting to try and narrow some differences between some key players. We came out of Hong Kong with a pretty clear idea of what we have to address and how we have to read across the whole understanding, but without an agreed level of ambition. Progress does not depend on unilateral moves by particular players but on what everyone can put into the mix together. I have a fairly good idea of where Europe can end up eventually but moving the EU will really depend not just on our red lines but the overall balance. Europe is prepared to give a lot, and to give more than others. But we cannot give for nothing in return."

EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said: "With the end of April just weeks away, this is a very timely meeting. The conclusions of Hong Kong commit WTO members to achieving a similar level of ambition on industrial products as on agriculture. Everyone must also recognise the benefits of a more liberal world market in services. That is what we must strive for. I hope we can work this weekend in a positive spirit towards achieving this balance."

Negotiators in London will continue to engage in all key areas of the negotiations: agriculture, industrial goods, services, trade facilitation and other world trade rules. The EU will continue to push others to match its wide-ranging offer of October 2005, which offered the steepest farm support and agricultural tariff cuts ever offered by the European Union in a multilateral trade round, with equivalent moves, especially in the crucial areas of trade industrial goods and services.

The talks will be held in central London. They will start with an evening session on Friday 10 March and continue through Saturday. A press briefing will be offered at the close of the meeting.

Progress since Hong Kong

At the December 2005 Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Meeting negotiators agreed to try to achieve broad agreement on tariff and subsidy reductions for both agriculture and industrial goods by the end of April 2006 while demonstrating progress in other key areas of the Round. This would allow negotiators to use the remainder of 2006 to agree detail and ensure that the Doha Round could be successfully concluded at the end of 2006 or early in 2007. After a short hiatus following Hong Kong, negotiations have continued in 2006. Following a mini-ministerial meeting in Davos, Switzerland in January, these have chiefly taken the form of a series of bilateral and plurilateral meetings between key negotiators.

Although these meetings have been constructive, there is an imbalance in talks across all sectors. For the EU, and other key partners, these balancing moves are essential if the Round is to be successfully concluded.

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• Speech by EU Commissioner Fischer Boel- European Agricultural Policy in a Changing Environment (6/3/2006)
• Speech by EU Commissioner Fischer Boel - EU perspectives on WTO outcomes (1/3/2006)
• Speech by EU Commissioner Mandelson: EU Agriculture and the World Trade Talks (27/2/2006)
• Europe's rules on GMOs and the WTO (7/2/2006)
• Getting the facts straight: EU's agriculture offer in Doha round  (3/2/2006)