DOHA DEAL KEY TO MORE EXPORTS TO INDIA, BRAZIL: US

Doha, February 24 (Reuters)- US exports to India, Brazil and other fast-growing emerging markets could remain relatively flat in the absence of a new world trade deal, the White House said on Wednesday in its annual economic report.

"A key item on the administration's trade agenda is therefore continued work to open these markets through the Doha Round of WTO (World Trade Organization) negotiations," the report said in a section looking at the world economy.

The analysis of how the United States could benefit from a new world trade deal follows WTO Director General Pascal Lamy's complaint on Tuesday that efforts to finally finish the nine-year-old talks were proceeding too slowly to meet an end-of-the-year deadline.

That has raised concern the negotiations could collapse again and remain stalemated until after the next US presidential election in late 2012.

President Barack Obama is expected to discuss the vexed talks with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff when he visits the country next month.

Last week, Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said the United States was making unreasonable demands on developing countries for more market-opening concessions.

The White House report noted India, Brazil and China have all cut import tariffs significantly over the past 20 years but said they remain high compared to the United States.

Brazil's average applied tariff is 13.6%, India's is 13% and China's is 9.6%. Those compare to 3.5% for the United States, 5.6% for the European Union and 5.4% for Japan, the report said.

Another measure used by the World Bank evaluates a country's "overall trade restrictiveness," with a higher number reflecting a more restrictive trade policy.

On this index, Brazil's score is 20.3, India's score is 18.0 and China's is 9.8. The United States' score is 6.3, the EU's is 6.4 and Japan's is 11.3, the report said.

The share of US exports going to Brazil, India and a number of other emerging economies has leveled off since the mid-1990s, when some of the countries went through an initial phase of trade liberalization, the White House said.

The prospect for future export growth to those countries depends at least partly on how much further they are willing to cut tariff and nontariff barriers, the report said.

In contrast to Brazil and India, China has risen over the past decade to the fourth largest destination for US exports behind the European Union, Canada and Mexico.

In 2000, only about 2% of US exports went to China, the report said.

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