BRUSSELS, Nov 28: The European Union is ready to restart stalled talks on a new global trade package following the World Trade Organization’s disastrous meeting at Cancun in the middle of September, EU trade chief Pascal Lamy has said.

The EU was ready to take a more “realistic” and flexible stance on the four so-called “Singapore issues” — investment rules, competition policy, government procurement and trade facilitation — which developing countries want to keep out of the trade talks, Mr Lamy told reporters.

The EU trade commissioner insisted that if WTO envoys meeting in Geneva on December 15 could agree to revive discussions, progress on the Doha trade round could be made next year despite upcoming American elections.

“I am not pessimistic. Americans will be able to negotiate...2004 cannot be written off,” Mr Lamy said.

The EU was ready to signal its readiness to reopen discussions, Mr Lamy underlined, adding that most other WTO members also wanted to end the current stalemate.

“But we can’t hope to move mountains simply on our own ... others have to make a bit of effort too,” he insisted. The EU trade commissioner said that instead of striving for a full WTO deal on the sticky “Singapore issues,” the EU was now prepared to strike “plurilateral” agreements with like-minded nations, while those who opposed negotiations could opt out of the accords.

“These questions are still important for us but we have to be realistic,” Mr Lamy insisted.

WTO negotiations on investments, competition and the other so-called “Singapore issues” are fiercely opposed by many developing countries, including India and African countries.

But Japan and South Korea are adamant that discussions on all four questions must continue in the WTO.

Mr Lamy also called on WTO members to start negotiations on agriculture, saying discussions on farm trade liberalization did not really take place in Cancun.

Developing countries, meanwhile, would have to make concessions on their high industrial tariffs, he warned.

EU trade ministers are expected to okay Lamy’s revised negotiating stance in talks in Brussels on December 2, ahead of the WTO meeting at Geneva in mid-December.