Doha deal not dead: US

The Doha Round of talks aimed at freeing up global trade is not dead, the US trade representative said Monday, expressing optimism a deal can be reached before President George W. Bush leaves office.
Susan Schwab made the comments after talks with economic ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), who are in Singapore as part of the bloc's annual summit.
"The Doha Round is not dead. It continues to move ahead," Schwab told a press conference.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks on cutting trade barriers to agriculture, industrial goods and services, launched in the Qatari capital in November 2001, are deadlocked over disputes between rich and poor nations.
"We've made some progress in the agricultural negotiations. We've also made progress in manufacturing and the United States remains steadfastly committed to a successful outcome," Schwab said.
"There are aspects of the texts that are on the table that make us very uncomfortable but that is no reason not to move ahead on the basis of the texts and we are encouraging others to do the same."
She said it was still possible to reach a deal before Bush leaves office at the start of 2009.
"There's every reason to expect that this could happen under the current administration," she said.
European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson predicted earlier this month that the 151-member World Trade Organisation would conclude the lumbering Doha Round in early 2008.
Developing and emerging nations are seeking cuts in farm subsidies and on import tariffs for agricultural produce, while rich nations in return want better access to markets in poorer economies for their manufactured goods.
Schwab dismissed talk of a divide between the developed and developing worlds, preferring to separate those looking to their "future potential versus the countries that are focussed more on their defensive interests."
NO FRESH WTO AGRICULTURE
TEXT UNTIL FEBRURY
Another report from Geneva adds: No revised text on agriculture is expected to be presented to World Trade Organisation (WTO) members until February as delegates continue to thrash out contentious points on subsidies, diplomatic sources said on Monday.
The WTO's chief agriculture negotiator, Crawford Falconer has called on the United States to reduce its agricultural subsidies to between 13-16.4 billion dollars (9-11.2 billion euros) -- a range on which Washington says it is prepared to negotiate.
But the draft text has been criticised as unfair by several developing countries, and Falconer has been forced to delay to an unspecified date a fresh revision of the text due to the lack of consensus.
However, "this time, it's not a question of delay because things are blocked, but rather because talks are proceeding and the delegates need more time," a diplomatic source told AFP.
Falconer issued his initial text in July, alongside a parallel set of proposals on industrial goods issued by his counterpart chair Don Stephenson.
Talks on both texts have been mired in an impasse ever since as developed and developing countries accuse each other of intransigence.
But recent talks on agriculture have shown some convergence on the issue of export subsidies, leading to a fresh two-week session of negotiations in Geneva from November 26, sources said.
These further talks, coupled with the end-of-year holidays and a possible ministerial meeting during the World Economic Forum at Davos in January, means a revised text is not likely to appear until February at the earliest, the source said.