Cairns, September 21 :

The European Union and United States both said they were willing to give ground to save global trade talks Thursday even as they continued to blame each other for the deadlock in negotiations.

Carlo Trojan, EU ambassador to the World Trade Organisation, said Brussels would do all it could to ensure a multilateral trade deal was completed next year although he rated the chance of success 50-50 at best.

Asked about WTO chief Pascal Lamy’s call for major players to wring concessions from their

politically-powerful farm lobbies, Trojan said EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has a mandate from the EU’s 25 member states.

“He considers that he has a mandate that makes it possible for him to stretch our position quite considerably as he did in July this year,” Trojan told reporters on the sidelines of a Cairns Group meeting of agricultural exporters in this northern Australian resort town.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab also displayed a willingness to compromise if it would save the WTO Doha Round of negotiations, which was suspended in July amid a bitter EU-US rift on farm subsidies and tariffs.

“We’ve also indicated that our proposal is negotiable, that we are prepared to do even more in terms of cutting domestic support (subsidies) than we have on the table if, and when, there is significantly more market access on the table,” she told reporters at the same meeting.

Trojan said Mandelson would visit Washington next week to explain Europe’s position to US political leaders and farm lobbyists ahead of mid-term Congressional elections in November.

“Obviously, having invested so deeply in this we want to see a successful outcome,” he said. “We realise that it’s important the US and the EU come closer to each other.

“As a matter of fact, Peter Mandelson is travelling to Washington next Tuesday, so communications lines are open and we will do what it takes to get things back on track.”

Trojan said Mandelson would “continue doing his utmost to get a favourable outcome to negotiations”.

The US Congressional elections could determine if the Bush administration’s overall mandate to negotiate trade deals is extended or expires in mid-2007, which would effectively shelve the WTO Doha Round talks for up to three years.