Date:10/01/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/10/stories/2006011004591400.htm

International

Trade liberalisation talks set to begin

Larry Elliott

The meet in Davos is a fresh push to the troubled WTO parleys

London: Trade Minister from 25 countries will seek to use the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month to give a new year kick-start to global liberalisation talks following last month's inconclusive meeting in Hong Kong.

With little more than three months until the deadline for a deal on cutting protective barriers in agriculture and manufactured products, the exclusive conclave of politicians, business leaders and academics in the Swiss Alps has been earmarked as the forum for a fresh push to the troubled talks. The World Trade Organisation said a meeting would take place in Davos, with the discussions likely to focus on access to the rich agricultural markets of the West — seen as the key to the entire round of negotiations launched in Doha more than four years ago.

Sources said countries representing one-sixth of the WTO's 150 members would attend the talks, including all the main players — the European Union, the United States, Brazil, India and Japan. They added that it was unclear at this stage whether the Trade Ministers would be joined by those heads of Government attending the World Economic Forum but that the get-together had taken on added importance in the light of the commitment to have a blueprint for agriculture and industrial products by April 30.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Brazilian President Lula da Silva have been pressing for a rapid follow-up by heads of Government since the lack of any real progress in the six days of talks in Hong Kong. They believe that the Prime Ministers and Presidents of the G-8 industrial nations and five leading developing nations — Brazil, India, Mexico, China and South Africa — may also be required to hold an emergency meeting over the next couple of months to clear the logjam.

Campaign groups were lukewarm about the meeting. Steve Tibbett, campaign director for Action Aid, said: ``The danger is that this will be seen as secretive negotiations, with great access for corporate lobbyists but very little participation for poor countries and almost no scrutiny by civil society.'' —