GENEVA (AFP) — Talks to forge a new global trade pact teetered on the brink of collapse Tuesday as the World Trade Organization said the mood was "very tense" and major powers blamed each other for the deadlock.
"The situation is very tense, things are finely balanced and the outcome is by no means certain," WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told reporters as marathon talks stretched into their ninth day.
He added that delegates were focussing on the sticking point of import tariff changes. India and the United States earlier accused each other of delaying progress towards an agreement on the issue.
The bargaining is aimed at securing consensus on measures to reduce barriers to global commerce under the so-called Doha Round, which has repeatedly foundered since it was launched in the Qatari capital seven years ago.
Talks since July 21 among ministers from about 35 key trading economies appeared to make a breakthrough on Friday, but optimism about a deal dimmed over the weekend as emerging economies held out for better terms.
"For everyone in the EU team there is a sense of being in the endgame," the European Union's Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson wrote in Monday's edition of his daily blog on the talks.
The United States pointed the finger at India and China, accusing them of holding up progress towards a deal.
"That's a real risk because those countries are advocating selectively reopening the package," said US Trade Representative Susan Schwab after a five-hour meeting with her counterparts from Australia, Brazil, China, the European Union, India and Japan.
"Therefore there is a real threat to a delicate balance we've achieved on Friday night and I'm concerned it will jeopardise the outcome of this round," she added.
The key stumbling block was a proposal to allow developing countries to impose a special tariff on certain agricultural goods in the event of an import surge or price fall.
This so-called "special safeguard mechanism" (SSM) is a key demand of India, which is holding out for a lower threshold than the 40 percent proposed in a compromise text by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy.
Rockwell said early Tuesday that this had been the main item on the agenda for the last 12 hours.
"There have been a variety of proposals, suggestions, formulas that have been thrashed out by senior officials, ministers, ambassadors, working to try and find a way forward on the issue," he said.
But an Indian source told AFP late Monday that the United States was refusing to budge on the issue.
"The US is stuck with SSMs, and is not willing to discuss any other issues," such as cotton, the source said.
Earlier, India's combative Commerce Minister Kamal Nath insisted that New Delhi was not to blame for the deadlock.
"We are not holding up the talks," he told AFP on the sidelines of Monday morning's meeting.
"Who's holding up this round I think are the large developed countries ... who are looking for commercial interests and enhancing prosperity rather than looking for content which reduces poverty."
Meanwhile, a fracture opened up within the EU, as nine countries in the bloc -- Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal -- asked Mandelson to get a better deal for the grouping.
But the chief EU negotiator said all sides had to be flexible if a deal was ever to be reached.
"We will only get to a resolution if people stretch, if people show leadership, and show some flexibility," the British EU commissioner said in a break in Monday's talks.
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