EU-US Summit: President Bush pledged his support to help secure an ambitious deal in world trade talks yesterday and agreed to strengthen US-EU co-ordination on energy policy.
He also said the EU and US would work more closely to address the challenge of climate change, signalling his recent shift of policy on greenhouse gas emissions to a European audience.
At the EU-US summit in Vienna yesterday Mr Bush warned that the Doha round of world trade talks could not be allowed to fail as it offered the best prospects for developing nations. He said the US would do all it could to secure an agreement, but warned the talks were at a critical and difficult stage.
"The point is we are committed to a successful round and it is going to take hard work," said President Bush, who referred to the process of making difficult adjustments to US internal policies to help get a deal to liberalise world trade further.
The World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha round was launched in 2001 to boost the global economy and help poor countries. But it is years behind schedule due to sharp disagreements between the main participants, including the EU and US, which remain deeply divided over subsidies and tariffs applied in the area of agriculture.
Trade ministers are due in Geneva next week for a crunch meeting that will discuss ways to reduce tariffs, subsidies and other barriers to global trade.
However, with the EU and US divided, and developing nations such as Brazil and India threatening to block a deal, there is a possibility that the talks will fall apart.
"The Europeans have problems with the US position, we have problems with the European position, we both have problems with the G20 (group of developing countries) position," said President Bush. "My view is we cannot let this round fail."
The EU has expressed concerns that the US is not engaging with the Doha round, particularly after President Bush replaced Rob Portman, the US trade representative, with his deputy, Susan C. Schwab, earlier this year. And on the eve of the summit yesterday European Commission president José Manuel Barroso issued a warning to the US that the trade talks were "dead" unless the US made further concessions.
The summit also focused attention on energy supply and security, ahead of a G8 summit in Russia next month that will put the issue high on the agenda. Tensions between the EU and Russia over gas supplies surfaced earlier this year when supplies of Russian gas destined for the EU market were cut off during a dispute with Ukraine.
President Bush said the US had agreed yesterday to reinforce its strategic energy co-operation with Europe by supporting the diversification of energy sources, securing energy infrastructure and improving energy security by enhancing dialogue with the main transit, producer and consumer countries. The US and EU needed to diversify away from oil, he said, and share technologies to help build sustainable energy supplies.
The US also pledged to work more closely with Europe to address the serious and long-term challenge of climate change, biodiversity loss and air pollution.
The US has been strongly criticsed by the EU for failing to sign the Kyoto Protocol. But earlier this year President Bush signalled a change of heart on the issue and America's heavy reliance on oil.
Answering a question about Russia's reaction to the new EU-US strategic partnership on energy, Mr Barroso said the agreement was not "against anyone". He added that he expected the G8 summit to be a success.