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Trade ministers downbeat on WTO prospects
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – 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.
Ministers from about 20 major economies held informal talks on the sidelines of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, but Washington only sent a deputy ambassador and no political representative.
“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.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters: “We cannot expect more than that because of course one of the main partners is not represented at a ministerial level.
“We have come to a point when it is the question of political will,” he said on arrival for the meeting.
Leaders of the G20 grouping of major economies, including President Barack Obama, agreed in Pittsburgh last September on the goal of wrapping up the Doha round of World Trade Organization 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 U.S. 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 U.S. congressional elections and Brazil’s presidential poll as among the political obstacles.
The long-running 153-nation talks collapsed in 2008 over a dispute between the United States, India and China on protection for farmers in developing countries. Other unresolved issues include cotton subsidies, trade in services and in environmental goods and services.
“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.
WTO Director-General Pascal 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.
The Obama administration has said big emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil must open their markets more to make a global trade deal worthwhile for U.S. business.
Swiss President Doris Leuthard chaired Saturday’s annual session, for which Switzerland had prepared a list of outstanding issues to be resolved, including her own country’s interests in protecting farmers and food and wine appellations.
But participants said the Swiss checklist was too detailed for ministers to engage on, and they would focus on the domestic politics of trade liberalization, and on the impact of climate change negotiations on trade.
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.
New Zealand’s Trade Minister Tim Groser, who is also conservation minister, and Brazil’s Amorim were to brief ministers on last month’s Copenhagen climate negotiations and their implications for trade.
“Clearly it’s very unlikely we’ll get a breakthrough at this meeting, but I hope we can create some understanding so at the minimum we keep the show on the road,” Groser told reporters.
“We’re stuck in the mud.”
, writing by Paul Taylor, editing by Hans Peters)