Archive - abr 2006 - Article

President George W. Bush on Tuesday will announce U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman as his choice to become White House budget director, a senior administration official said.

Shortly before Arthur Dunkel, the world's top trade official for more than a decade, died last June, soon-to-be World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy went to visit him. Mr. Lamy wanted to ask about the nuclear option of world-trade diplomacy, known as a 'Dunkel draft.'

The departure by U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman to become director of the Office of Management and Budget and the nomination of Deputy USTR Susan Schwab as the next USTR signals that trade has become a diminishing priority for the Bush Administration, according to several sources.

An anticipated meeting of trade ministers in Geneva at the end of April aimed at pushing forward a deal for the Doha Round talks on agriculture and nonagricultural market access looks more doubtful as chances for securing a final agreement on 'modalities' in the two sectors fade, according to officials contacted by BNA April 11 and 12.

Links to the 'reference papers' submitted by the Chair of the Agriculture negotiations, Ambassador Falconer, to the WTO membership on Wednesday 11 April.

Governor John Baldacci wants to carve Maine out of current international negotiations that would open up the service sector of the economy to international trade. The Governor says the federal government has been deaf to sovereignty concerns raised by the states, and as Jeanne Baron reports, he's pushing to leave Maine out of the deal.

Government

President Bush met with U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman April 10 to discuss the World Trade Organization negotiations just three weeks ahead of a key deadline in the talks, saying that he had done so 'because I'm a big believer that trade helps lift people out of poverty.'

EU trade chief Peter Mandelson said Tuesday the European Union was ready to give more ground in world trade talks but it needed to see similar concessions from other trade partners.

The prospects for successfully concluding the Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks by the end of the year appear to have dwindled significantly in recent weeks, sources said April 7, as the United States and the European Union continue to be at odds over the make-or-break issue of agriculture.