Democrats reassure EU over stance on Doha talks

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EU trade chief Peter Mandelson said on Thursday he had been given assurances by US Democratic leaders that they would not unpick a global trade deal if the party won November’s presidential election.

The World Trade Organisation’s long-delayed Doha round of talks for a global trade deal faces possibly its final chance of being concluded in the coming weeks.

Any final version of an agreement would have to be signed by the next US president and put to Congress.

On top of deep differences over how to lower barriers to trade, there are growing concerns that Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama might change any agreement if elected president. They have expressed concerns about trade deals during campaigning.

European Union Trade Commissioner Mandelson, who is leading calls for a push to do a WTO deal now, said he had put the concerns of the United States’ trading partners to Democratic committee chairs in Congress.

“And the view coming back from them is that if you do do the bulk, if you really get it done bar the final details, then there will be continuity, we’re not going to start reversing it,” he said in an interview on the BBC.

Ministers from WTO nations are expected to meet in June or July in an attempt to find a breakthrough in the negotiations.

The talks were launched in 2001 to boost the global economy and help fight poverty but have lurched from crisis to crisis.

Without a breakthrough before the WTO’s August break, there will be no chance of a deal being done under President George W. Bush, raising the prospect of further years of delay or the round’s complete collapse, negotiators have said.Mandelson also repeated his criticism of candidates in the U.S. presidential race for questioning the value of more open trade. He declined to mention any candidate by name.

“It’s ... irresponsible to be pretending to people that you can erect new protection, new tariff barriers around your economy,” he said.

“It’s going to lead us into a vicious spiral of beggar-my-neighbor policies which will take us decades back in terms of trade growth and rising living standards.”

Mandelson criticized Clinton directly in December for suggesting she might not press for a WTO deal if elected.