Tempers flare, threaten WTO deal

On day eight of hard bargaining, the United States accused India of failing to get behind a fragile agreement reached among six of seven major trading economies on Friday.

Washington also maintained that China was reneging on its earlier promises.

"That's a real risk because those countries are advocating selectively reopening the package," said US Trade Representative Susan Schwab after a five-hour meeting with her counterparts from India, China, Australia, Brazil, European Union and Japan.

"Therefore there is a real threat to a delicate balance we've achieved on Friday night and I'm concerned it will jeopardise the outcome of this round," she added.

While Schwab did not name names, the United States in a meeting with all 153 member states had earlier accused India and China of threatening to shatter a deal reached over the week end by key parties in Geneva.

"All their invocations of development during the past years ring hollow when these major players threaten the development benefits already on the table that are absolutely vital to the vast majority of the membership," said David Shark, the US deputy head at the Geneva mission to the World Trade Organisation.

China surprised

The accusations met with a sharp retort from the Chinese, diplomats attending the meeting said.

Chinese Ambassador Sun Zhenyu said then that China had "tried very hard" to contribute to a successful round.

"It (China) is a little bit surprised that at this time the US started this finger pointing," he said.

He also turned the tables on the US, arguing that while Washington had offered to cut the ceiling of its agricultural subsidies to $14.5bn, the actual annual spending was only $7bn to $8bn a year.

India rebutted

That suggested that the United States could continue to keep current subsidies, with room to even increase the volume.

"Where is the new market access to the developed countries?" asked Sun.

India's Commerce Minister Kamal Nath also bluntly rebutted the US charge.

"We are not holding up the talks," he told AFP on the sidelines of Monday morning's meeting.

"Who's holding up this round I think are the large developed countries... who are looking for commercial interests and enhancing prosperity rather than looking for content which reduces poverty."

Nath also insisted he had never signed up to the compromise package but was "still optimistic" a deal could be reached.

"There is no doubt in anyone's mind... that at the start on Friday, I'd said that India does not agree," Nath said.

"On all elements of the package we have serious concerns, starting from trade distorting subsidies going into the non-mentioning of cotton," he added.

He added, however, that the "good news is that we're continuing to negotiate".

The marathon bargaining is aimed at securing consensus on measures to reduce barriers to global commerice under the Doha Development Agenda, launched in the Qatari capital seven years ago, but which has foundered since then.

Ministers have also been trying to calm frazzled nerves, calling for the focus to be kept on achieving a deal.

Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean said that countries had been very patient and that "we can understand a degree of frustration."

Fuel to fire

"It's normal in any negotiations so we've got to overcome the frustrations and not lose sight of the objectives," he told AFP in the late morning, adding that the state members were "so close" to a deal that "we need to try and conclude it."

In Paris, France added fuel to fire, as the government said that "the project currently on the table is not acceptable as it stands."

It also emerged that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had rung European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso over the weekend to complain about the proposed deal.

And in Rome Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Italy was worried about "the absence of progress" in certain key areas under discussion here.

- Sapa-AFP