Brussels, May 16:

EU farm commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel voiced doubt that World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade mi-nisters would make a breakthrough in negotiations this week in Paris and Brussels.

“I hope that we can push a bit the negotiations but I do not expect a breakthrough,” the Danish commissioner said. Major WTO players are to try this week to narrow differences, notably on trade in farm products, that have blocked progress in current round of free-trade talks, that kicked off in the Qatari capital in 2001.

Trade or finance ministers from 30 leading industrialised nations will convene in Paris today for trade talks during the annual gathering of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Tomorrow, the action moves to Brussels where the four main players in the talks, the EU, the US, India and Brazil, will hold a two-day long session.

The talks will bring together EU trade commissioner, US trade representative, Indian trade and Brazilian finance minister. With the Doha round formally suspended since July 2006, Crawford Falconer, the WTO’s chief agriculture negotiator, has sought to boost talks by confronting the parties with a new set of figures. He proposed that the US reduce its official support to farmers to an amount less than $19 billion-a-year.

IPR dispute

BEIJING: China and the US plan to hold talks on the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) and market access for publications. The talks will be held at WTO headquarters from June 5 to 8. Last month, the US formally lodged a complaint against China at the WTO over copyright piracy. — AFP