Bilateral trade pacts not in EU interest - presidency
NDTV, India
Bilateral trade pacts not in EU interest - presidency
8 September 2006
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Bilateral trade deals are not in the interests of anyone, EU President Finland said on Friday, in the first public criticism of European Commission plans to seek one-on-one pacts with Asian countries.
Attention has turned to bilateral deals after the Doha round of multilateral trade talks stalled in July following five years of negotiations, leaving the European Union and the United States blaming each other for the impasse.
"There are now discussions about bilateral agreements in world trade and I suppose from the European point of view, one would say that this is not in the interests of Europe or the (rest) of the world," Finnish Finance Minister Eero Heinaluoma told reporters.
"There is a deep concern that without positive agreements in the Doha round, there can be real difficulties for the whole world economy," Heinaluoma said at the opening of a meeting of EU finance ministers.
European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has said that while reviving the Doha talks remains the priority, he also wants to press ahead with possible free trade negotiations with South Korea, ASEAN and India if the Commission gets a mandate from EU member states.
"There is really the need for a new (attempt) to end satisfactorily the Doha round," Heinaluoma added.
Mandelson has said the Doha round could resume only after U.S. congressional elections in November.
EU trade experts have increasingly focused on Asia where the bloc has no regional or bilateral agreements and where the United States and Japan have recently made moves.
