WTO talks called off

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson expressed “profound disappointment and sadness” at the news of suspension of the talks, saying “it could so easily have been avoided” and blaming the US for being “unwilling to accept, or indeed to acknowledge, the flexibility being shown by others in the room” and causing the talks to be discontinued. 

EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said that it would be possible to pick up the talks again in the future but added “to be honest, I don't think this will happen very quickly. There is no new deadline”. The EU was ready “to walk the extra mile if a final deal was within reach. Unfortunately, the US preferred to stand still”, she said, adding that “we will continue to do all we can to assist our partners in the developing world”. 

The U.S. was the sole government among the six not to improve its offer, Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said. 

But U.S. officials said the fault lay with other countries. "Unfortunately things became clear yesterday that 'Doha light' seems still to be the preferred option of some of the participants," said US Trade Representative Susan Schwab. 

“We have missed a very important opportunity to show that multilateralism works,” said WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy. He said that this represented a lost opportunity to integrate more vulnerable members into international trade, “the best hope for growth and poverty alleviation”; and warned of the negative impact on the world economy with the possible resurgence of protectionism. “Let me be clear:", he added, "there are no winners and losers in this assembly. Today there are only losers.”

The European Services Forum said that developed and developing countries will miss out on enourmous potential economic gains because "services have once again been taken hostage of agriculture" even though the latter "represents only 8% of world trade and 2% of developed countries economy". 

According to Oxfam, the US and the EU must “make fundamental changes to their offers” in order to contribute to the growth of poorer countries. “The cost of further delay continues to be enormous... The EU and the US remain free to subsidize their biggest agricultural producers and continue dumping, while developing countries continue to struggle to ensure survival of subsistence farmers and break into rich Northern markets.” said Oxfam. 

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth Europe  both view the collapse of talks as good news for the world’s poor and the environment, calling on world leaders to use “this opportunity … to build a new global trade system based on equity and sustainability”. "The WTO failure today proves, yet again, that the time of bulldozing the interests of the developing world has passed," said Daniel Mittler, Trade Policy Advisor of Greenpeace International. "Multilateral alternatives to the WTO exist. Now is the time for governments to explore them," he concluded.