Posted 2009/11/04 at 10:48 am EST
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2009 (Reuters) — (Reuters) - The United States will not agree to a deal in world trade talks unless other countries make better offers to open their markets to U.S. farmers, manufacturers and service companies, two U.S. trade nominees said on Wednesday.
"I believe a good deal is doable. But we will not do a deal at any cost," Michael Punke, President Barack Obama's choice to be U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization, said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on his nomination.
"From my meetings and conversations with members (of Congress), with your staffs and with various stakeholder groups, I understand very clearly: No deal is better than a bad deal," Punke said in prepared remarks.
The Doha round of world trade talks was launched eight years ago with the goal of helping poor countries prosper through trade. World leaders recently set a goal of concluding a deal in the long-running talks next year.
However, U.S. trade officials have said they need much more clarity about market openings that big developing countries like China, Brazil and India are willing to make in exchange for politically difficult cuts in U.S. farm subsidies and peak industrial tariffs.
"Based on the briefings I have received, it is my understanding that the Doha negotiations have made progress on some issues, but the larger stumbling blocks remain unresolved," Islam "Isi" Siddiqui, nominee to be chief U.S. agricultural negotiator, said in prepared remarks.
The United States is being asked to make "significant" cuts in domestic support and export subsidies, "therefore a final agreement on agriculture must provide commercially meaningful market access for U.S. agricultural products into the markets of developed and emerging economies," Siddiqui said.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Will Dunham)
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