U.S. warns of need to fix "imbalance" in Doha talks
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States warned on Monday there would be no agreement in long-running world trade talks until other countries make stronger commitments to open their markets to U.S. goods.
"The administration is committed to working with our trading partners for (a successful conclusion to the Doha round)," the U.S. Trade Representative's office said in its first annual trade agenda report under President Barack Obama.
"However, it will be necessary to correct the imbalance in the current negotiations in which the value of what the United States would be expected to give is well-known and easily calculable, whereas the broad flexibilities available to others leaves unclear the value of new opportunities for our workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses."
The report is more evidence there is unlikely to be a quick conclusion to the seven-year-old Doha round in 2009, even though Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said countries came "within a millimeter of reaching a deal" last year and urged Obama to make finishing the talks a priority.
U.S. manufacturing, services and farm groups are deeply unhappy with other countries' offers in the talks and told Obama last week they did not believe negotiations could simply pick up where they left off in 2008.
The report also outlines Obama's plans for three stalled free trade pacts negotiated by the administration of President George W. Bush, as well as Obama's campaign promise last year to "fix" the North American Free Trade Agreement by adding stronger labor and environmental provisions.
The USTR said the Obama administration hopes to move the Panama free trade agreement "relatively quickly. And we plan to establish benchmarks for progress on the Colombian and South Korean FTAs."
Obama campaigned against both the Colombia and the South Korea agreement last year, saying that Colombia needed to do much more to reduce violence against trade unionists and the terms of the South Korean agreement were bad for U.S. automakers and other manufacturers.
"We will also work with Canada and Mexico to identify ways in which NAFTA could be improved without having an adverse on trade," USTR said, echoing comments Obama made during a one-day visit to Ottawa last month.
The trade office report also put more emphasis on the importance of protecting workers' rights through trade agreements than it did under the Bush administration.
"We need to ensure that expanded trade is not at the expense of workers' welfare and that competitiveness is not based on the exploitation of workers. Building on the provisions concerning labor in some of our FTAs is a way forward in this regard," the report said.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
