Bush team hopes to kick start trade talks

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration believes it can succeed where the Clinton administration failed in launching a new round of global trade talks.

The administration is mindful that two years ago, the Clinton economic team also was optimistic about progress. That hope disappeared in a cloud of tear gas as thousands of anti-globalization protesters scored a huge victory when the negotiations collapsed in Seattle.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick will head the American delegation for the discussions with 141 other nations beginning Friday in Doha, Qatar.

Qatar was the only country willing to serve as host for the World Trade Organization meetings after Seattle.

The Bush administration insists it learned valuable lessons from the Clinton team’s failures in Seattle. For one, the length of the document that will set the agenda for a new round of trade talks is 12 pages, compared with the 30-plus pages of draft text before trade ministers in Seattle.

Left purposely vague are details about the items to be covered in the upcoming negotiations.

"There is clearly an element here where we are trying to get the round launched rather than deal with all of the elements in it," said a senior administration trade official. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official provided a preview of the discussions to a small group of reporters.

Major U.S. business groups have endorsed the more general text. They are concerned that another failure to launch trade liberalization negotiations would sap confidence just when the global economy is facing tough times.

"The biggest problem in Seattle was not the demonstrators. It was that countries, including the United States, tried to prenegotiate a guaranteed outcome," said Frank Vargo, vice president for trade at the National Association of Manufacturers.

"Even if it means the language has to be more general and less specific, let’s just get a new round launched," he said.

Trade ministers will have several important issues to settle in Doha.

  • The biggest fight will come over protecting the patents of pharmaceutical companies.

  • The European Union objects to a demand by the United States and many developing countries that all farm export subsidies be phased out. Europe relies heavily on subsidies to support its smaller, less efficient farms.

  • The Bush team will try to limit the scope of new negotiations over laws used by the U.S. steel industry and other American industries to erect barriers against cheaper-priced foreign products.

    Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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