Indonesia's trade minister said Wednesday that she had seen “coded signals” that key players in WTO trade talks here were ready to make new offers to reach a final deal. “I have to be cautiously optimistic (about progress). There were coded signals - some evidence was there yesterday, even though they were not putting explicit offers on the table,” said Mari Elka Pangestu of a ministerial meeting last night. Pangestu, who speaks for the G33 group of developing countries, added that it was “not just the US or Europe” but that “it's what we call the major countries.” Asked specifically if a move were expected from India, whose Commerce Minister Kamal Nath made his delayed appearance Wednesday after his government survived a confidence vote, she would only reply “possibly.” Meanwhile, the northern African island nation of Cape Verde, one of the world's poorest states, on Wednesday became the 153rd member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Negotiations between Cape Verde and the WTO started in 1999. The process included the examination of measures undertaken by the African nation to adapt its trading practices to WTO regulations as well as to open its markets to imported goods and services. With a population of 400,000, Cape Verde, an archipelago in the North Atlantic, specializes in the production of salt and bananas and in fishing. The country, which became independent from Portugal in 1975, became the 33rd of the world's 50 least developed countries to join the WTO. However, no ceremony has been planned at the WTO. “We are too busy for a ceremony,” said a diplomatic source with a smile, refering to an ongoing ministerial meeting in Geneva aimed at brokering a global trade deal. Developing countries on Tuesday shot down an offer by the United States to cut its farm subsidies as negotiators urged a quickening of pace after the first two days of crucial WTO talks here. The United States offered to cut official aid to its farmers to $15 billion a year in a bid to spur movement at the WTO talks but found no support from key player Brazil. “Nice try,” said a member of the Brazilian delegation, adding that the proposed new subsidy level was “still too high.” Brazil has been acting here as an unofficial spokesman for developing countries. Brazil's chief WTO negotiator Celso Amorim subsequently struck a slightly more positive note, saying the US move “proves the engagement of US in the negotiations but with a low level of ambition.” “I think it was a start but just a slow start,” he told journalists after talks that went on late into the evening. The European Union's top trade official also said the talks needed to step up their pace if a deal is to be reached before the week is out. Tuesday's session “had its high points and its low points but overall I think we are still moving forward - but we need to move forward a little quicker,” EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said. Mandelson said that while the agriculture question was by no means wholly resolved, “it's very clear now that that side of the negotiations, if not closed, is getting behind us and now we have got to concentrate on industrial goods trade”. This is a field where “there's a lot of disagreement, a lot of heat but where we have to find an outcome in order to get a deal,” he added. Industrial goods - known as non-agricultural market access (NAMA) in WTO jargon - is a key point of the Doha round for developed countries.
