WTO head Lamy says trade deal within reach

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy yesterday said a global trade deal was now within reach but political leaders needed to give a "final push" to complete the current round of negotiations.

Lamy warned that the consequences of failure could be dire, saying protectionism historically had paved the way to war, and that poor countries would feel slighted if the industrialised world continued to enjoy favour under the existing trade regime.

Trade diplomats returned to the negotiating table in Geneva earlier this week in an attempt to wrap up the so-called Doha Development Round, named after the Qatari capital where negotiations were launched in November 2001 and intended to help poor countries improve their lot through freer trade rules.

Lamy has repeatedly urged countries to complete the talks by the end of this year to avoid the negotiations running into the US Presidential election year, when Washington is expected to have little flexibility to negotiate.

Lamy called on the United States to accept deeper reductions in farming subsidies, for Europe and Japan to lower tariff protections and for developing nations to reduce tariffs on industrial goods in order to reach a global deal.

Arguments over the size of needed cuts to farming subsidies and tariffs, especially in rich nations such as the United States and France, are among the toughest challenges in the way of a WTO deal on agriculture, industrial goods and services.

The talks have struggled to overcome many countries' resistance to opening their farm and manufacturing industries to more competition.

Lamy warned that a collapse in talks could initiate a period of legal bickering, trade disputes and indeed aggravate diplomatic tensions that have in the past led to armed conflict.

The Doha Round was launched only months after the 9/11 attacks on the United States in an effort to stimulate economic growth and confidence in multilateralism that suffered a severe blow as fears of terrorism surged.