PARIS, 15 May 2004 — The Doha round of global free-trade talks showed signs of getting off the ground here yesterday following US and EU moves on agriculture, with developing countries coming under pressure to open their markets.

European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said half of the Doha round of talks could be completed by a July deadline thanks to recent progress.

“I think everybody around the table is committed to work hard and move and make the compromises we need so that we can by July complete 50 percent of the Doha agenda,” Lamy told journalists following a ministerial meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Lamy spoke ahead of a gathering of ministers from 28 member countries of the World Trade Organization to take stock of progress on the Doha Round, an ambitious trade-opening initiative launched in the Qatari capital in November 2001 but which has foundered since the collapse of a ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico last September.

The framework for an agreement on agriculture was emerging, an EU source said, adding that an EU proposal earlier this week to eliminate EU agricultural export subsidies on condition that the United States, Canada and Australia do likewise had helped move the talks forward. US, European and other agriculture nations now appear prepared to phase out their mechanism for supporting exports once a framework is agreed.

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said the United States was prepared to “discipline” support in the form of export credits and stop using food aid for commercial ends.

The meetings were the latest effort to reach agreement on a negotiating framework by July that would enable the round of talks to conclude as scheduled by the end of the year.

Trade representatives are aiming to hammer out by July rules for final talks so that only concrete numbers have to be discussed before the year-end deadline.

Progress has so far been held up by disputes over the pace at which support for agricultural exports will be abolished in rich countries. Developing nations contend that such assistance depresses world prices and makes it impossible for their farmers to compete effectively on global markets.

Earlier Friday, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said the WTO negotiating process was now showing encouraging signs concerning agriculture issues. “There have been encouraging signs, but much work needs to be done before July on all three pillars to reach a point where a balanced agreement is possible,” he told reporters, referring to agriculture export subsidies, domestic subsidies and market access.

Agricultural trade has in the past proven to be a sticky issue and was in part responsible for the collapse of a WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico last September. Yesterday, leaders of French farm unions protested in front of the Australian embassy against the EU proposal to scrap its export subsidies.

French farmers are among those most favored by European agricultural aid. Disputes over the so-called Singapore issues — cross-border investment, competition policy, government procurement and trade facilitation — also contributed to the collapse in Cancun.

But US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said the talks were now focused on trade facilitation andthe other three issues had been set aside for the time being. “I think we are now clearing the decks on the Singapore issues and focusing solely on trade facilitation,” he said. But the European and US representatives signaled that they expected concrete gestures from developing countries in opening up their markets, by lowering customs tariffs including on agriculture products.

Zoellick said he expected developing countries to make a proposal to favor agriculture market access.

Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Celso Amorim said that the developing countries would make a proposal in the beginning of June.