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Wanted: Rocker-Activist's Support
Hoping His Help Will Salvage Free-Trade Talks, Officials Brief U2's Bono on U.S. Agenda
By GREG HITT
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON Rocker-activist Bono helped cajole world leaders into embracing African debt relief. Now, U.S. officials hope U2's lead singer can help salvage global free-trade talks.
Early this month, Trade Representative Rob Portman briefed the Irish singer and top staffers of his advocacy group on the U.S. agenda in talks taking place under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. The half-hour telephone call was the latest attempt to get the singer to help push for a deal. His organization, DATA -- "debt AIDS trade Africa" -- fights poverty and AIDS, particularly in the developing world.
"We just want them to be involved. That's our objective," said a Portman spokeswoman. A DATA spokesman said the group is pressing the U.S. to stay committed to the talks and "to make sure African farmers are part of this deal."
Mr. Portman was in Geneva for more meetings with major WTO players this week. But the global initiative remains stalled, underscoring the importance of his overtures to Bono, which are part of a larger strategy among Bush aides as they head to Hong Kong next month for crucial negotiations. The Hong Kong talks are the next step in the Doha Round talks, which began in Doha, Qatar, in 2001.
Mr. Portman and other officials are seeking support from antipoverty groups -- not just Bono's DATA, but a wide alliance of nongovernmental organizations -- and from African nations.
The stepped-up American trade diplomacy has two aims. One is to build an expanding coalition of countries and advocates to join the U.S. in putting pressure on Europe to make steep cuts in farm tariffs. Europe's refusal so far is widely seen as the most significant factor in the stalled WTO talks.
The second, more modest goal is to prevent the Hong Kong meetings -- scheduled to start Dec. 13 -- from collapsing. The last major attempt to advance the Doha Round, in Cancún, Mexico, in 2003, fell apart when developing countries essentially revolted amid complaints that the U.S. and Europe weren't doing enough to ensure the deal would help poor nations.
U.S. officials have in recent weeks all but given up on the idea that the Hong Kong gathering would produce an ambitious framework deal. They had argued a framework was essential to ensuring the negotiations could be concluded in time for President Bush to submit a deal to Congress before his special trade-negotiating authority expires in mid-2007.
But yesterday in Geneva, key WTO members outlined a plan to conclude the current round of talks by the end of 2006, and acknowledged that they would be unable to agree to a framework treaty in Hong Kong. Mr. Portman, who hosted a one-day meeting with ministers from the European Union, India, Japan and Brazil, said the Hong Kong ministerial meeting won't bring an agreement on cutting tariffs and subsidies over a wide range of trade topics as previously hoped. So now, U.S. officials are shooting for a more modest goal in Hong Kong. By cultivating African nations, along with Bono and his allies, they are betting they can get enough interest from the newly influential poorer countries to prevent a Cancún-like setback and perhaps add momentum to the Doha Round.
The American outreach includes specific measures, such as a proposal to streamline U.S. and EU health and safety regulations on food imports and new aid grants to African countries making economic reforms.
But U.S. efforts to win over Africa -- and raise pressure on Europe -- are limited by the Bush administration's own intransigence, including on calls by cotton-producing African nations to end all subsidies to U.S. cotton growers.
The U.S. push to increase world-wide pressure on Europe was on display last week at a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in South Korea, where officials from many nations demanded bolder farm action from Geneva. Before the summit, Mr. Portman traveled to India and China, where he urged officials to help break the WTO logjam.
Mr. Portman also made a point of stopping in West Africa, along with Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, for two days. "We've definitely been looking for ways to orient programs in Africa," said an administration official involved in the latest round of economic diplomacy. "We're trying to stretch a little."
The trip took the two U.S. cabinet secretaries to Burkina Faso for meetings with trade officials from five African cotton-producing nations, which emerged as an important bloc in Cancun. Messrs. Portman and Johanns said the proposed American trade concessions would eventually address African concerns about U.S. subsidies. In the meantime, they handed out $7 million to improve the efficiency of cotton production in West Africa and issued a statement noting Burkina Faso was in line for "hundreds of millions of grant dollars" after joining Benin, Mali and Senegal as eligible for assistance from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, which steers development aid.
Separately, Josette Shiner, the Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs, has been meeting regularly in Washington with antipoverty groups, promoting the U.S. agenda but also exploring ways to steer more benefits to Africa. Since Cancún, U.S. officials have recognized the influence of NGOs in shaping perceptions of trade talks and are recruiting their ideas and support in the buildup to Hong Kong.
Emphasizing market-based solutions to poverty, Ms. Shiner has suggested that setting common U.S. and EU sanitary standards for imports such as fruits and vegetables would benefit African farmers.
Poor nations with scarce resources and technical expertise often have trouble navigating these standards, which cover issues such as germ-fighting treatments for chickens.
Ms. Shiner said complying with different standards from around the globe poses a "daunting situation for African countries," and suggested U.S.-EU recognition of standards for even two or three products could pay dividends.
While Ms. Shiner has yet to approach Europe on the issue, she has broached the idea with international antipoverty advocates. The NGOs meeting with her praise the effort. The changes "could make a big difference for African exporters -- probably a bigger difference than getting rid of trade" tariffs, says Kim Elliott, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development, an antipoverty think tank and advocacy group in Washington.
Thanks Brenda!
Hoping His Help Will Salvage Free-Trade Talks, Officials Brief U2's Bono on U.S. Agenda
By GREG HITT
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON Rocker-activist Bono helped cajole world leaders into embracing African debt relief. Now, U.S. officials hope U2's lead singer can help salvage global free-trade talks.
Early this month, Trade Representative Rob Portman briefed the Irish singer and top staffers of his advocacy group on the U.S. agenda in talks taking place under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. The half-hour telephone call was the latest attempt to get the singer to help push for a deal. His organization, DATA -- "debt AIDS trade Africa" -- fights poverty and AIDS, particularly in the developing world.
"We just want them to be involved. That's our objective," said a Portman spokeswoman. A DATA spokesman said the group is pressing the U.S. to stay committed to the talks and "to make sure African farmers are part of this deal."
Mr. Portman was in Geneva for more meetings with major WTO players this week. But the global initiative remains stalled, underscoring the importance of his overtures to Bono, which are part of a larger strategy among Bush aides as they head to Hong Kong next month for crucial negotiations. The Hong Kong talks are the next step in the Doha Round talks, which began in Doha, Qatar, in 2001.
Mr. Portman and other officials are seeking support from antipoverty groups -- not just Bono's DATA, but a wide alliance of nongovernmental organizations -- and from African nations.
The stepped-up American trade diplomacy has two aims. One is to build an expanding coalition of countries and advocates to join the U.S. in putting pressure on Europe to make steep cuts in farm tariffs. Europe's refusal so far is widely seen as the most significant factor in the stalled WTO talks.
The second, more modest goal is to prevent the Hong Kong meetings -- scheduled to start Dec. 13 -- from collapsing. The last major attempt to advance the Doha Round, in Cancún, Mexico, in 2003, fell apart when developing countries essentially revolted amid complaints that the U.S. and Europe weren't doing enough to ensure the deal would help poor nations.
U.S. officials have in recent weeks all but given up on the idea that the Hong Kong gathering would produce an ambitious framework deal. They had argued a framework was essential to ensuring the negotiations could be concluded in time for President Bush to submit a deal to Congress before his special trade-negotiating authority expires in mid-2007.
But yesterday in Geneva, key WTO members outlined a plan to conclude the current round of talks by the end of 2006, and acknowledged that they would be unable to agree to a framework treaty in Hong Kong. Mr. Portman, who hosted a one-day meeting with ministers from the European Union, India, Japan and Brazil, said the Hong Kong ministerial meeting won't bring an agreement on cutting tariffs and subsidies over a wide range of trade topics as previously hoped. So now, U.S. officials are shooting for a more modest goal in Hong Kong. By cultivating African nations, along with Bono and his allies, they are betting they can get enough interest from the newly influential poorer countries to prevent a Cancún-like setback and perhaps add momentum to the Doha Round.
The American outreach includes specific measures, such as a proposal to streamline U.S. and EU health and safety regulations on food imports and new aid grants to African countries making economic reforms.
But U.S. efforts to win over Africa -- and raise pressure on Europe -- are limited by the Bush administration's own intransigence, including on calls by cotton-producing African nations to end all subsidies to U.S. cotton growers.
The U.S. push to increase world-wide pressure on Europe was on display last week at a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in South Korea, where officials from many nations demanded bolder farm action from Geneva. Before the summit, Mr. Portman traveled to India and China, where he urged officials to help break the WTO logjam.
Mr. Portman also made a point of stopping in West Africa, along with Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, for two days. "We've definitely been looking for ways to orient programs in Africa," said an administration official involved in the latest round of economic diplomacy. "We're trying to stretch a little."
The trip took the two U.S. cabinet secretaries to Burkina Faso for meetings with trade officials from five African cotton-producing nations, which emerged as an important bloc in Cancun. Messrs. Portman and Johanns said the proposed American trade concessions would eventually address African concerns about U.S. subsidies. In the meantime, they handed out $7 million to improve the efficiency of cotton production in West Africa and issued a statement noting Burkina Faso was in line for "hundreds of millions of grant dollars" after joining Benin, Mali and Senegal as eligible for assistance from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, which steers development aid.
Separately, Josette Shiner, the Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs, has been meeting regularly in Washington with antipoverty groups, promoting the U.S. agenda but also exploring ways to steer more benefits to Africa. Since Cancún, U.S. officials have recognized the influence of NGOs in shaping perceptions of trade talks and are recruiting their ideas and support in the buildup to Hong Kong.
Emphasizing market-based solutions to poverty, Ms. Shiner has suggested that setting common U.S. and EU sanitary standards for imports such as fruits and vegetables would benefit African farmers.
Poor nations with scarce resources and technical expertise often have trouble navigating these standards, which cover issues such as germ-fighting treatments for chickens.
Ms. Shiner said complying with different standards from around the globe poses a "daunting situation for African countries," and suggested U.S.-EU recognition of standards for even two or three products could pay dividends.
While Ms. Shiner has yet to approach Europe on the issue, she has broached the idea with international antipoverty advocates. The NGOs meeting with her praise the effort. The changes "could make a big difference for African exporters -- probably a bigger difference than getting rid of trade" tariffs, says Kim Elliott, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development, an antipoverty think tank and advocacy group in Washington.
Thanks Brenda!
