Mandelson: Doha trade deal can be salvaged

A phoenix can be "summoned from the ashes" of the Doha trade talks, according to Peter Mandelson.

The EU trade commissioner, writing in Monday's FT, blames domestic political constraints for the collapse of the five-year talks aimed at liberalising free trade and helping poor countries.

Mandelson writes: "What is at stake if we fail greatly outweighs the relatively small gaps that divide us.

"We must avoid burning our bridges. We should try to find a way back to the table."

The Doha round of talks reached an impasse in Geneva last week, when trade negotiators were unable to reach a deal.

Mandelson said the different positions over agriculture were not irreconcilable.

He backed a "difficult but doable" course of action by the EU, suggesting it offers larger average tariff cuts and new market access on the most sensitive imports.

He said the US needed to cut "no more than a few billion dollars worth of trade-distorting support".

Mandelson warned that the Doha round risks "losing the race against time" and is unlikely to be concluded by the end of the year.

And he says that a final deal is unlikely before next July, when the fast track negotiating authority granted by the US Congress to President George W Bush expires.

He said there are reasons to believe President Bush may ask Congress to extend the powers because he is a "free trader" and is anti-protectionist.

Mandelson writes: "None of us will get all we desire, and, indeed, Europe has already dropped many of its aspirations for the round.

"But the costs of no agreement are far greater than the inconveniences of a less than perfect one."