European Union farm ministers yesterday vowed to defend the multilateral trade system in the wake of the breakdown of World Trade Organisation talks on a new global trade agreement last week.
However, they warned that restarting the talks would also depend on developing countries' readiness to make concessions.
"All the member states stick to the principle of the multilateral approach and they have said very clearly that bilateral agreements are not an alternative," said Mr Franz Fischler, the EU farm commissioner.
Mr Giovanni Alemanno, the Italian farm minister who presided over the meeting in the Sicilian town of Taormina, said: "The EU is committed to multilateralism. We won't give in to the temptation [of bilateral trade agreements]."
The EU's commitment to the multilateral approach after the acrimonious collapse of the crucial meeting of trade ministers in Cancun, Mexico sets Brussels on a route that diverges from the one chosen by the US administration.
Washington has made it clear it will now redouble efforts to sign bilateral and regional free trade agreements, which are easier to negotiate than WTO agreements but have been heavily criticised for discriminating against third parties.
Moreover, because they typically bring together an economically powerful partner with a weaker one, trade experts argue that they leave developing countries with a worse deal than they might get in the WTO.
While the EU is keen to strengthen the 148-strong trade body, officials and diplomats in Taormina admitted privately there was not much the EU could do in the short term to put the WTO negotiations back on track.
"We did everything we could have done," said one official, referring to the farm reform package agreed by EU ministers in June this year and trumpeted by the European Commission as the biggest overhaul of the common agricultural policy in its 40-year history.
Mr Fischler reiterated his calls for reform of the WTO's procedures without spelling out the changes he has in mind.
Mr Alemanno said: "In Cancun many developing countries were badly informed about European agriculture so we must increase the information for them."
However, the ministers made it clear that the EU would not offer any concessions on farm trade - the most important issue by far for developing countries - over and above the ones agreed in June. - (Financial Times Service)
