GENEVA (AFX) - The world's major trade powers looked likely Saturday to walk away from last-ditch talks here on a new global trade treaty having made no progress on agreeing to a deal that is expected to lift millions of people out of poverty.
More than 60 ministers -- a third of the 149-nation World Trade Organization -- are taking part in the discussions, but most of the key negotiating countries have expressed pessimism with many blaming each other for the lack of progress.
'We came to Geneva to seek a breakthrough,' said U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab on the third day of talks.
'... The experience of the last several days has been somewhat disheartening,' she added.
The Doha round of trade talks, named for the Qatari capital where it was launched five years ago, is already two years behind schedule, and the WTO has warned its failure would cost the global economy billions of dollars (euros) in growth.
The complex talks have stalled as poorer countries demand the EU and United States offer greater cuts in support for American and European farmers. The U.S. and EU in turn want major developing countries like Brazil and India to allow more foreign competition in their industrial and services sectors.
Sniping between the EU and U.S. has also held up the round.
Schwab said that a U.S. offer in October to cut government subsidies to its farmers has not been matched by other negotiators.
'Just last October the United States took a risk ... by putting on the table a major agricultural offer, expecting that it would be matched by similar bold moves by others,' she said. 'Regrettably, that hasn't happened yet.'
Critics claim the U.S. has offered only marginal reductions.
As the mainstay of many poor and developing countries, farm trade has become the biggest stumbling block in the talks because those nations face steep tariffs on their exports to several rich nations. Those costs are compounded by subsidies paid to farmers in wealthy countries, which encourage excess production and lead to a swamped market.
The issue is a particularly sensitive one for the United States, which faces opposition from Congress and farm lobby groups to any further concessions on the subsidies.
International relief agency Oxfam has said the U.S. offer is a smoke screen that lowers the theoretical ceiling on subsidies while actually allowing for an increase in spending from US$19.7 billion in 2005 to US$22.7 billion.
World leaders including U.S. President George W. Bush have pledged their commitment to the talks, but most countries have rigidly stuck to the same positions they have maintained for months.
A meeting Friday afternoon between six of the world's top trading nations -- Australia, Brazil, the EU, India, Japan and the U.S. -- failed to break the deadlock. Officials left a subsequent session in the evening also looking dissatisfied.
Developing countries have blamed U.S. intransigence for the failure so far to reach an agreement that would have the power to help millions of people in poorer countries.
Indian Trade and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has said he intends to leave the talks early Saturday if the United States fails to improve its offer on farm subsidies.
'We are on 8 to 9 percent growth. I've come here looking for a trade deal which helps me to reach 10 to 11 percent,' Nath said Friday. 'I haven't come here to get a trade deal which makes me go to 4 or 5 percent.'
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who leads the WTO's influential G-20 group of developing countries, has described the U.S. and EU stance as 'politically wrong and morally false.'
Associated Press writer Bradley S. Klapper contributed to this report.
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