WTO talks need quick restart

Negotiations to revive the Doha Round must restart "very quickly" for a global trade deal to be salvaged after July's failed ministerial meeting, mediators of the seven-year-old talks said.

"I have the sense that politically there is a readiness to have another go," New Zealand ambassador Crawford Falconer told lawmakers at an Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting in Geneva.

Mr Falconer, who chairs the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations on agriculture, said the seven economies whose ministers sparred in July over an emergency tool for farmers had worked hard this week to resolve that dispute.

If those seven - the US, EU, Brazil, India, Japan, China, and Australia - are able in meetings this week to narrow their gaps, Mr Falconer said Doha Round talks involving the WTO's 153 members could resume.

"In my view, that process needs to happen very quickly," the farm chairman said. "The longer you are away from an implicit deal, the more difficulties you have putting Humpty Dumpty back together again."

Economists believe a deal in the Doha Round could inject billions of dollars into the global economy, potentially creating jobs and raising incomes in the developing world.

But many countries are reluctant to expose their key markets to more competition, and the talks have missed deadline after deadline since they began in Qatar in 2001.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy convened the July summit in order to clinch a basic deal spanning farming and manufactured goods, with the intention of wrapping up Doha negotiations on cross-border services and other trade rules by the end of this year.

The July talks became ensnared on the question of when and how countries could invoke a "special safeguard measure" to protect poor farmers when import volumes spike or prices fall.

Other issues, including cuts to the huge subsidies paid to US cotton farmers, were not addressed in the talks, which collapsed after nine days.

Mexico's WTO ambassador Fernando de Mateo y Venturini told the Inter-Parliamentary Union session that he expected fresh offers soon in the Doha services talks he mediates.

"Next year we should be able to conclude this Round," said Mr de Mateo, whose name has circulated as a potential new chairman of the WTO's industrial goods talks following Canadian ambassador Don Stephenson's return to Ottawa this summer.

WTO chief Mr Lamy said that week that a core deal in farming and manufacturing could be completed by the end of this year, with a full deal formalised next year.

But many diplomats have voiced concerns about ramping up negotiations before a new US administration takes office in January, given Washington's stance may change as a result. Elections expected next year in India and the installation of a new European Commission at the end of next year also loom large.