BRUSSELS, Nov 17: The European Union is poised to table a new offer for poor countries in WTO trade talks before a key ministerial meeting in Hong Kong concerning cotton in particular, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday.

We are preparing a special offer aimed at developing countries, the poorest countries, Barroso told a joint new conference with Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure.

We will make it public before the Hong Kong ministerial meeting running from December 13 to 18, he added.

EU trade chief Peter Mandelson would outline the offer to Toure during his visit to Brussels on Friday, the commissioner’s spokesman Peter Power said.

Mandelson’s offer would consist of the elimination of all form of exports subsidies for cotton in all developped countries, duty free access for cotton imports by all developped and advanced developing countries and a substantial reduction of trade distorting domestic support for producers in developped countries.

Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, for which cotton is a vital export, have said their interests must not be sidelined at the Hong Kong summit.

The Hong Kong meeting is meant to agree the outlines of an international accord to cap the Doha round negotiations launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital.

The negotiations aim to produce a wide-ranging multilateral deal cutting tariffs, subsidies and other barriers to commerce while using trade to boost living standards in developing countries.

The West African cotton producers want the summit to fix a date for the elimination of cotton subsidies.

Power said that the EU wanted its cotton proposals to come into effect at once after the Doha round is concluded while the Americans want to delay it.—AFP