EU's Lamy to seek RI, S'pore support for trade round

EU's Lamy to seek RI, S'pore support for trade round

BRUSSELS (Reuters): European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy
will visit Indonesia and Singapore this week to try to build
support for a new round of global trade liberalization talks, an
EU official said on Wednesday.

During his visit to Indonesia on Thursday and Friday, Lamy
will hold talks with Coordinating for Finance, Economy and
Industry Minister Kwik Kian Gie and Industry and Trade Minister
Luhut Pandjaitan.

He then goes on to Singapore, holding meetings on Saturday
with Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and several ministers.

The trip is the latest in a series of visits Lamy has made to
key developing countries to lobby for a new attempt to launch a
round of trade talks after the failure of the Seattle World Trade
Organization (WTO) conference last December.

Previous trips have taken him to Brazil, India and South
Africa.

The EU backs a comprehensive agenda for a new round of trade
talks, but in Seattle, it clashed with the United States and
other leading food exporters over agriculture. Deep splits
between industrial and developing countries over the scope of the
talks also helped sink the Seattle conference.

While in recent joint declarations with the United States and
Japan, the EU has pledged to work to try to launch a new round
this year, European Commission officials now concede the
prospects for a round this year are diminishing.

Many trade experts believe there is little chance of launching
a round before a new U.S. administration takes office next year
after the presidential elections in November.

One EU official said Singapore "by and large shared EU
positions" at the failed Seattle meeting and is regarded as a
potential EU ally in support of launching a new round.

The EU hopes to persuade Singapore to use its influence to
encourage other Southeast Asian countries to back a new round,
the official said.

Indonesia wanted a narrower agenda in new trade talks and had
been reluctant to launch a full-scale round in Seattle, the EU
official said.

At a WTO meeting in Geneva last month, key developing
countries including Indonesia made clear they would not agree to
a full new global round of trade talks until their concerns about
earlier agreements were resolved, according to trade sources.

In Indonesia, Lamy will stress that the EU seeks a
"development round" which takes account of the needs of
developing countries, the EU official said.

The EU will also stress its belief that the extent of its
trade with both Indonesia and Singapore is not as high as it
should be.

"We'd like to look at what are the obstacles to current trade
and what we can do about it," the official said.