国际英语新闻：EU trade chief warns Doha Round facing high risk of failure

 The European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson warned on Friday that the Doha Round of world trade talks was facing "a high risk of failure."

    "I now fear that Doha is facing a high risk of failure, the first failure ever for a multilateral trade round," Mandelson said in a speech to his counterparts from the Least Developed Countries in Lesotho, which was made available to the media here by the European Commission press service.

    The failure "would not be a good signal for the global economy, which needs the confidence boost and the insurance against protectionism," he added.

    Urging the United States to make more concession, the EU trade chief said the world is now faced with a final widow for the deal as global agricultural prices are currently high, and price guarantees for farmers are unspent.

    "This offers the U.S. a unique window to reform its trade-distorting farm supports without significant political pain. Agricultural commodity demand is high and supply is tighter than ever, which makes the logic of freer farm trade compelling," he said.

    The Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade negotiations was launched in 2001 with an aim to bring down trade barriers to promote development. The talks have been stalled due to major differences between developing and industrialized nations.

    Developing countries have been pressing for greater access to agricultural markets in the industrialized world, while developed nations are in return seeking a better industrial market access to the developing countries.

    Mandelson blamed the current deadlock on the U.S. reluctance to slash its trade-distorting farm subsidies, and called on the large emerging economies to offer more in opening their industrial markets.

    "We now need the U.S. to match us with comparable subsidy cuts of their own. And the large emerging economies to bring some balance to the package by offering some new market access in industrial goods and services," he said.