Argentina blames U.S., EU for trade negotiation failures

The Argentine government said on Friday that the "intransigence" of the United States and the European Union led to the failure of the recent Group of Four (G4) trade negotiations.

The United States and the EU have not been able to understand the real meaning of the Doha mandate of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said in a communique.

Negotiations among the major G4 players -- the United States, the EU, Brazil and India -- collapsed in Potsdam, Germany, on Thursday. The G4 had planned to bridge its gaps on crucial issues such as agriculture trade and industrial market access, which would be helpful to pave the way for convergence among all WTO members.

Taiana said Argentina is "disgruntled" at the failure of the G4 meeting and appreciated the standpoint of Brazil and India, the main negotiators for developing countries.

Brazil and India said the United States and EU were demanding too high a price for cutting their trade-distorting farming subsidies.

The United States and the EU said Brazil and India refused to offer significant new market openings in manufacturing.

Heads of delegations of the WTO's 150 members met on Friday at the WTO headquarters in Geneva to discuss the next steps of the trade talks after the collapse of the G4 meeting.

Source: Xinhua