WTO trade deal, vital says Brown

BEIJING – Clinching a deal to tear down barriers to global trade is the most important challenge facing global economic policy makers, British finance minister Gordon Brown said on Friday.

Talks under the aegis of the World Trade Organisation have picked up steam in recent days but rich and poor countries remain far apart in the run-up to a make-or-break meeting in Hong Kong in December of ministers of all 148 WTO member countries. A repeat in Hong Kong of the failure of two previous WTO meetings, in Seattle in 1999 and in Cancun in 2003, would deal a potentially fatal blow to the WTO’s Doha round of market-opening talks, which are due to be completed by the end of 2006.Reaching agreement in Hong Kong was “the most important single event” on the global economic agenda, Brown told a news conference.Agriculture holds the key, and Washington sought to break the logjam last week by offering to cut politically sensitive farm subsidies – a step diplomats say now puts pressure on the European Union to make concessions on farm import tariffs.”In our view, if we are to avoid the disappointments of Seattle and Cancun, then Europe and America must move together and Europe should lead the way in rejecting agricultural protectionism,” Brown told a news conference.Brown was in Beijing for a weekend meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 rich and developing countries.The Doha Round was on the agenda.While diplomats at WTO headquarters in Geneva agree that the new US subsidy offer has helped galvanise the liberalisation talks, the EU and leading developing countries have questioned whether it would bring about real cuts in US farm spending.The Doha round, launched four years ago and already well behind schedule, aims to lower barriers to business across the globe.If successful, the World Bank says it will lift tens of millions of people out of poverty by boosting trade.Brown and Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing released a joint paper on globalisation which combines support for measured liberalisation with a recognition that different countries may need to set their own pace.-Nampa-ReutersA repeat in Hong Kong of the failure of two previous WTO meetings, in Seattle in 1999 and in Cancun in 2003, would deal a potentially fatal blow to the WTO’s Doha round of market-opening talks, which are due to be completed by the end of 2006.Reaching agreement in Hong Kong was “the most important single event” on the global economic agenda, Brown told a news conference.Agriculture holds the key, and Washington sought to break the logjam last week by offering to cut politically sensitive farm subsidies – a step diplomats say now puts pressure on the European Union to make concessions on farm import tariffs.”In our view, if we are to avoid the disappointments of Seattle and Cancun, then Europe and America must move together and Europe should lead the way in rejecting agricultural protectionism,” Brown told a news conference.Brown was in Beijing for a weekend meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 rich and developing countries.The Doha Round was on the agenda.While diplomats at WTO headquarters in Geneva agree that the new US subsidy offer has helped galvanise the liberalisation talks, the EU and leading developing countries have questioned whether it would bring about real cuts in US farm spending.The Doha round, launched four years ago and already well behind schedule, aims to lower barriers to business across the globe.If successful, the World Bank says it will lift tens of millions of people out of poverty by boosting trade.Brown and Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing released a joint paper on globalisation which combines support for measured liberalisation with a recognition that different countries may need to set their own pace.-Nampa-Reuters