BRAZIL SUGGESTS SUMMIT TO PUSH FOR WTO DOHA DEAL
01 febrero 2010
Fuente:
Fuente:
Taken from Yahoo! News
(MENAFN - Arab News) Brazil has suggested that world leaders meet to give a final push to long-stalled negotiations for a global trade pact, World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy said Saturday.
"During the course of the discussion, (Brazilian Foreign Minister) Celso Amorim put this option on the table," said the director-general of the WTO.
"Nobody said no, but we all said during the course of the discussion that if that was to happen, what remains to be done � which is a list of 12-13 fairly technical questions � will need to be simplified," he added.
Some 17 ministers representing countries including Australia, China and India, as well as the European Union attended the mini-ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos.
However at least two key players were absent � US Trade Rep. Ron Kirk did not travel to Davos and China was represented by the vice-minister of commerce, rather than the minister of commerce.
Neither Lamy nor Switzerland's President Doris Leuthard, whose country hosted the meeting, would be drawn into whether or not Brazil's suggestion was feasible.
But Leuthard said the list of unresolved issues should be trimmed to just "five or six" points before political leaders are brought in to negotiate.
She also said ministers present at the meeting reaffirmed their commitment to move the Doha Round forward in the coming months.
"It is not good enough to have senior officials meet in Geneva or have a lot of bilaterals. Ministers have to be engaged and give guidance to their officials," she said.
Separately, the deputy chairman of India's Planning Commission Montek Ahluwalia told the Davos conference that the failure of the world to conclude the Doha Round bodes ill for a global pact on climate change.
"The credibility for global action is going to be tested by the Doha Round, not by climate change," he said.
"I find it very difficult to believe that if the global community can't resolve multilateral trade negotiations that it will be able to handle more complex issues like climate change," he added.
Lamy had said in December that a March breakthrough is needed for a Doha deal to be done in 2010. The Doha Round of negotiations for a world trade liberalization deal began in 2001 with a focus on dismantling obstacles to trade for poor nations by striking an accord that will cut agriculture subsidies and tariffs on industrial goods. Deadlines to conclude the talks have been repeatedly missed.
Discussions have been dogged by discord over issues including how much the United States and the EU should cut farm aid, and the extent to which developing nations such as India, China and South Africa should lower tariffs.
Trade ministers were skeptical on Saturday about the prospects of concluding stalled global trade liberalization talks this year, with some blaming the United States for foot-dragging. "We would like to see the (Doha) round completed as soon as possible, but for that everybody will have to be there," European Union Trade Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.
Leaders of the G20 grouping of major economies, including US President Barack Obama, agreed in Pittsburgh last September on the goal of wrapping up the Doha Round of WTO negotiations in 2010.
But there has been scant progress since then and many participants say domestic politics and the impact of the financial crisis and high unemployment in the United States and Europe have made chances of an early trade deal more remote.
"All the indications are that it's an incredibly controversial matter in the US Congress and I don't think they have yet defined a sustainable approach to conclude the round," South African Trade Minister Rob Davies told Reuters on Friday. Davies cited mid-term US congressional elections and Brazil's presidential poll as among the political obstacles.
"If I'm one of those who lives to be a 100, I hope we are not still trying to conclude the Doha trade round then," Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean joked.
Lamy told reporters he was encouraged that there had been no retreat into protectionism so far in the global recession, but the political momentum to make the final trade-offs needed in the Doha Development Round, launched in 2001, had still not materialized.
Senior officials are due to conduct a stocktaking exercise in late March to see if an outline WTO deal is possible this year, and participants said no one would want to put negotiating cards on the table at this stage.
(MENAFN - Arab News) Brazil has suggested that world leaders meet to give a final push to long-stalled negotiations for a global trade pact, World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy said Saturday.
"During the course of the discussion, (Brazilian Foreign Minister) Celso Amorim put this option on the table," said the director-general of the WTO.
"Nobody said no, but we all said during the course of the discussion that if that was to happen, what remains to be done � which is a list of 12-13 fairly technical questions � will need to be simplified," he added.
Some 17 ministers representing countries including Australia, China and India, as well as the European Union attended the mini-ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos.
However at least two key players were absent � US Trade Rep. Ron Kirk did not travel to Davos and China was represented by the vice-minister of commerce, rather than the minister of commerce.
Neither Lamy nor Switzerland's President Doris Leuthard, whose country hosted the meeting, would be drawn into whether or not Brazil's suggestion was feasible.
But Leuthard said the list of unresolved issues should be trimmed to just "five or six" points before political leaders are brought in to negotiate.
She also said ministers present at the meeting reaffirmed their commitment to move the Doha Round forward in the coming months.
"It is not good enough to have senior officials meet in Geneva or have a lot of bilaterals. Ministers have to be engaged and give guidance to their officials," she said.
Separately, the deputy chairman of India's Planning Commission Montek Ahluwalia told the Davos conference that the failure of the world to conclude the Doha Round bodes ill for a global pact on climate change.
"The credibility for global action is going to be tested by the Doha Round, not by climate change," he said.
"I find it very difficult to believe that if the global community can't resolve multilateral trade negotiations that it will be able to handle more complex issues like climate change," he added.
Lamy had said in December that a March breakthrough is needed for a Doha deal to be done in 2010. The Doha Round of negotiations for a world trade liberalization deal began in 2001 with a focus on dismantling obstacles to trade for poor nations by striking an accord that will cut agriculture subsidies and tariffs on industrial goods. Deadlines to conclude the talks have been repeatedly missed.
Discussions have been dogged by discord over issues including how much the United States and the EU should cut farm aid, and the extent to which developing nations such as India, China and South Africa should lower tariffs.
Trade ministers were skeptical on Saturday about the prospects of concluding stalled global trade liberalization talks this year, with some blaming the United States for foot-dragging. "We would like to see the (Doha) round completed as soon as possible, but for that everybody will have to be there," European Union Trade Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.
Leaders of the G20 grouping of major economies, including US President Barack Obama, agreed in Pittsburgh last September on the goal of wrapping up the Doha Round of WTO negotiations in 2010.
But there has been scant progress since then and many participants say domestic politics and the impact of the financial crisis and high unemployment in the United States and Europe have made chances of an early trade deal more remote.
"All the indications are that it's an incredibly controversial matter in the US Congress and I don't think they have yet defined a sustainable approach to conclude the round," South African Trade Minister Rob Davies told Reuters on Friday. Davies cited mid-term US congressional elections and Brazil's presidential poll as among the political obstacles.
"If I'm one of those who lives to be a 100, I hope we are not still trying to conclude the Doha trade round then," Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean joked.
Lamy told reporters he was encouraged that there had been no retreat into protectionism so far in the global recession, but the political momentum to make the final trade-offs needed in the Doha Development Round, launched in 2001, had still not materialized.
Senior officials are due to conduct a stocktaking exercise in late March to see if an outline WTO deal is possible this year, and participants said no one would want to put negotiating cards on the table at this stage.
