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WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - A new text aimed at reaching a breakthrough in longrunning world trade talks does not set the stage for agreement, and trade ministers should not meet to try to fashion a deal until there is more consensus, a top U.S. industry group said on Monday.
"We do not believe a ministerial meeting should be called until it is clear that a greater consensus exists than is now the case," said John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers.
The failure of the text to require China, India and Brazil to participate in "sectoral" agreements where countries would agree to eliminate tariffs on certain manufactured goods is "a deal breaker" in his group's view, Engler said in a statement.
World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy is expected to decide soon whether to call key trade ministers back to Geneva in coming days for another attempt to reach a breakthrough in the 7-year-old Doha round.
President George W. Bush has pledged to push hard for breakthrough in the talks before leaving office on Jan. 20.
But he has run into opposition from four senior members of Congress, who say that leading developing countries such as China, India and Brazil are still not offering enough new market openings as part of the package.
In a letter last week to Bush, Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, and the other lawmakers said the time was not right for a ministerial meeting to clinch a deal.
The U.S. Trade Representative's office has had little to say about two new texts -- one covering manufactured goods trade and the other covering proposed cuts in farm subsidies and tariffs -- released on Saturday in Geneva.
"We have received the revised texts and are reviewing them. During this period the administration will continue to consult and work closely with the Congress and our key domestic stakeholders," Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office, said in a statement.
"If a ministerial is called, we will be there," Hamel added in an e-mail reply to a question.
However, many business lobbyists believe Lamy won't call a meeting unless he first has the consent of key players such as as the United States.
The U.S. manufacturers groups has pushed hard for sectoral agreements covering industries such as chemicals, electronics and industrial machinery to be part of the Doha package because it believes the general formula negotiators have developed for cutting tariffs would not give them any new export opportunities in fast-growing export markets.
"The tariff-cutting formulas currently proposed for manufactured goods are too weak to generate new market access and trade flows, making strong sectoral agreements the only option for sufficient trade liberalization in industrial goods," Engler said. (Reporting by Doug Palmer)