Ministers from major trading powers decided on Thursday to redouble efforts for a deal in the stalled Doha round, arguing that opening up global trade would boost the world economy without hitting budgets.
They acknowledged the 8-1/2-year-old Doha round was at an impasse and that serious negotiations -- away from the glare of the media and public diplomacy -- were now needed to break the deadlock.
Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean said ministers meeting in Paris had held frank discussions about the difficulties they faced.
"All of the evidence points to the significance of trade and the liberalization agenda that facilitates trade being an important economic stimulus -- a stimulus that does not impact upon budgets," Crean told a briefing after hosting the meeting.
"And we will keep at it. We won't be deterred simply by the difficulty because the outcome is too important to sustainable economic recovery," he said.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking in London, agreed.
"I think if the world wants a stimulus, and it's a stimulus that would really benefit, we should be pushing much harder on getting the Doha trade round going again," he told BBC radio.
NOT ECONOMICALLY COMPELLING
WTO members launched the Doha round in 2001 to free up world commerce and help poor countries prosper through more trade.
The outlines of a deal are clear: rich countries will remove barriers to their food markets and cut trade-distorting farm subsidies while developing countries, except the poorest, open their markets to more goods and services.
But agreeing an overall package has proven impossible so far, with the United States arguing that big emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India -- who are now major players in the global economy -- should do more to facilitate a deal.
The United States wants the emerging giants to open up their markets more to goods -- from cars to chemicals and services to banking and express delivery -- in return for Washington paying farmers less to produce crops such as wheat and soybeans.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk repeated that call on Thursday, saying the current draft package was not economically compelling and real, substantive negotiations were now needed.
Kirk categorically rejected the idea that the United States should make a "pre-payment" to get those negotiations moving, pointing to concessions already made by the U.S. in agriculture.
But Kirk made it clear that the United States was ready for further concessions once those negotiations start in order to get a satisfactory deal.
"We have asked everyone to engage with us in honest, very tough negotiations -- we'll do that," he told reporters.
Ministers agreed the WTO's 153 members should now broaden the Doha talks to look at the overall package rather than individual sectors such as agriculture or manufactured goods.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said it was important to make progress on trade in services and environmental goods and on fisheries subsidies, where gaps remain wide.
Lamy said the international trading system rules banning protectionist tit-for-tat policies had helped to prevent an even worse crisis. Leaders of the G20 rich and emerging countries have also promised not to close their markets.
But a report by independent experts, Global Trade Alert, said governments had continued to resort to protectionism, even though the proportion of benign trade measures was increasing.
"Since the first G20 crisis-related summit in November 2008, the governments of the world have together implemented 496 beggar-thy-neighbor policy measures -- that is, more than one for every working day," the report said.
Despite the lack of progress on Doha, trade is rebounding this year as the global economy recovers. The WTO forecasts it will expand by 9.5 percent this year after slumping 12.2 percent in 2009.
The airline association IATA said air cargo -- which accounts for about 30 percent by value of international trade -- was 25.2 percent higher in April than a year earlier.
Source : reuters.com