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Mandelson: Hong Kong "difficult but
not impossible"
In a speech to a PES Trade and Poverty Conference in the
European Parliament in Brussels, EU Trade Commissioner
Peter Mandelson offered an assessment of the DDA
following three days of talks in Geneva and London. He
argued that levels of ambition for the DDA could not be
lowered, even if expectations for the Hong Kong
Ministerial were. Insisting that the EU would make no
new offer on agriculture before Hong Kong he called
further movement on industrial tariffs and services,
especially from advanced developing countries "the
bargain at the heart of the negotiation".
Hong Kong: "Difficult but not impossible"
"The plain fact is that the situation with the round is
very difficult but not impossible...The realistic level
of ambition for Hong Kong at this stage will be to
consolidate the progress that has been made, build on
the July Framework and leave most of the main decisions
on the figures to somewhat later, hopefully in the first
quarter of next year. I resisted this putting off, but
have had to bow the inevitable."
Reduce ambitions for Hong Kong, but not for the Round as
a whole
"Reducing expectations for Hong Kong, if carefully
handled, will allow us to avoid an acrimonious breakdown
of the sort we witnessed in Seattle and Cancun. This
would weaken the multilateral trading system as well as
global economic confidence...But if we scale back in
Hong Kong, we should not scale back for the Round as a
whole. It is too important."
"Simply demanding more in agriculture...does not add up
to a serious negotiation"
Reciprocation by our partners in the areas of industrial
tariffs and services is the bargain lying at the heart
of this negotiation. This is where movement now has to
come. Simply demanding more and more in agriculture,
without proper balance in commitments from others both
in agriculture and outside agriculture, does not add up
to serious negotiation or deal making. We will not make
a further agricultural offer before Hong Kong, although
we will engage further in discussing the content of what
we have offered and the appropriate responses by other.
"We must mix realism with ambition"
"Taking longer will not transform the economic and
political realties that shape our choices. We will
stretch ourselves to find new flexibility and compromise
as I hope others will do. We must mix realism with
ambition in order to maximize the benefits of the
Round."
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