Barshefsky says time not yet right for trade round
WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - President Bill Clinton's top trade negotiator said on Wednesday prospects for a new round of global trade negotiations had not improved since the collapse of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in December, casting doubt on new talks any time soon.
U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said it was impossible to predict when a new trade round could be launched because WTO member nations remained deeply divided over the negotiating agenda.
``Countries have not yet agreed to make the kinds of shifts in position or policy in order to achieve that outcome,'' Barshefsky told reporters after meeting here with WTO Director-General Mike Moore. ``Levels of inflexibility that we had previously seen have remained at the present time.''
WTO negotiations collapsed in December amid huge street protests and deep divisions over agriculture, labor standards and other issues.
Moore has been trying to restart the negotiating process, meeting with Barshefsky and European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy. Barshefsky said Moore would reach out to other WTO members in the coming months, but held out little hope for a breakthrough in the near-term.
``Every country will go through an internal process and make determinations,'' Barshefsky said. ``So I think what we will see is something of an evolutionary process, that is to say, a process by which countries will determine (whether they) can realistically move their positions.''
``To the extent countries become more flexible over time, then one can readily envision an ultimate launch of a round,'' Barshefsky said. ``But to put some arbitrary time frame on that, I think, is not realistic.''
After meeting with Lamy in Brussels on Tuesday, Moore told reporters he saw little sign so far that governments were prepared to make concessions to get stalled world trade talks back on track. ``This is going to be painful, slow, deliberate and focused,'' he said.
Some trade diplomats have been skeptical about the chances of making a second attempt to launch a new trade round before the U.S. presidential election in November.