by Christopher Wenk
 
As I blogged from Europe last week as part of the Chamber’s Doha Trade Delegation, people in Geneva have been looking for more signals from the Obama Administration on the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. I think it safe to that yesterday’s confirmation hearing at the Senate Finance Committee for two key Obama trade nominees did the trick.

As Reuters reported on the hearing:

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.

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.

But 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.

The United States is being asked to make "significant" cuts in domestic support and export subsidies for farmers, said Islam "Isi" into the markets of both developed and emerging economies," Siddiqui said.

Even more important was a point made by Punke (a member of the Senator Max Baucus Alumni Association), that our business delegation reinforced in all of our meetings last week:

"From my standpoint, the worst possible outcome in Doha would be to accept something in Geneva, bring it back to Congress, and have Congress reject it," Punke said. 

Signal received…