Focus on trade at ministers meeting

LONDON – Britain and the United States were pressing finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s seven wealthiest nations to prioritise paving the way for a deal on global trade.

Economic policy makers from the Group of Seven nations were also expected to discuss interest rates, high energy prices and lopsided trade flows at the two-day gathering, which started yesterday. The finance ministers and bankers are meeting just two weeks before crucial World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong, where trade ministers had hoped to find broad agreement on trade liberalisation.”In the next few days an opportunity presents itself which may not come again for 10 or perhaps 20 years,” Britain’s Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who is hosting the meeting as the last under the nation’s G-7 leadership, said Friday.”In our view the trade round could bring wide-scale benefits to all economies, developed and developing, and contribute to the economic reform agenda,” he said.However, expectations for the Hong Kong meeting have been scaled back amid disputes over lowering agriculture tariffs despite four years of negotiations since the talks were launched in Doha, Qatar.”We’re just days ahead of the Hong Kong ministerial and progress is slow, so we hope to give negotiations a much-needed shot in the arm, an adrenaline punch,” US Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs Tim Adams said on the eve of the talks.Adams said that time is running out for ministers to have an agreement completed in time to push it through the US Congress before President George W.Bush’s negotiating authority expires in mid-2007 and warned that everyone will suffer the consequences via slower growth if no deal emerges.Britain has invited ministers from fast-developing economies including India, Brazil, China, South Africa and Russia to join the talks of the formal G-7 group – the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.The extra guests at the negotiating table have been pushing for cuts in the protective tariffs maintained by richer countries like the United States.”We now need progress in trade that allows countries like Brazil and India to positively support the liberalisation of services and greater market access for them and the key to unlocking that door as everybody knows, is Europe and America making further reforms to address the protectionism of agriculture,” Brown said.However, Razeen Sally, an economist at the London School of Economics, said that it was unlikely the finance ministers would make any real progress on trade issues.The G-7 has been warning of the dangers of skewed trade and investment since 2003 and the hefty US trade deficits are likely to figure in discussions.-Nampa-APThe finance ministers and bankers are meeting just two weeks before crucial World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong, where trade ministers had hoped to find broad agreement on trade liberalisation.”In the next few days an opportunity presents itself which may not come again for 10 or perhaps 20 years,” Britain’s Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who is hosting the meeting as the last under the nation’s G-7 leadership, said Friday.”In our view the trade round could bring wide-scale benefits to all economies, developed and developing, and contribute to the economic reform agenda,” he said.However, expectations for the Hong Kong meeting have been scaled back amid disputes over lowering agriculture tariffs despite four years of negotiations since the talks were launched in Doha, Qatar.”We’re just days ahead of the Hong Kong ministerial and progress is slow, so we hope to give negotiations a much-needed shot in the arm, an adrenaline punch,” US Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs Tim Adams said on the eve of the talks.Adams said that time is running out for ministers to have an agreement completed in time to push it through the US Congress before President George W.Bush’s negotiating authority expires in mid-2007 and warned that everyone will suffer the consequences via slower growth if no deal emerges.Britain has invited ministers from fast-developing economies including India, Brazil, China, South Africa and Russia to join the talks of the formal G-7 group – the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.The extra guests at the negotiating table have been pushing for cuts in the protective tariffs maintained by richer countries like the United States.”We now need progress in trade that allows countries like Brazil and India to positively support the liberalisation of services and greater market access for them and the key to unlocking that door as everybody knows, is Europe and America making further reforms to address the protectionism of agriculture,” Brown said.However, Razeen Sally, an economist at the London School of Economics, said that it was unlikely the finance ministers would make any real progress on trade issues.The G-7 has been warning of the dangers of skewed trade and investment since 2003 and the hefty US trade deficits are likely to figure in discussions.-Nampa-AP