DAVOS, Switzerland -- Trade ministers from key developing nations, Europe and North America aim to lay out a "road map" designed to guide the Doha Round of talks forward when they meet today. Trade ministers from the G-20 group of key developing nations plan to meet in the Swiss resort town of Davos just before a larger meeting of trade ministers including key industrialized states in an effort to outline precise steps to keep Doha on track.
"We'll be working on a road map," Canadian Trade Minister Jim Peterson told reporters on the sidelines of an annual economic summit yesterday. "Failure on Doha is not an option."
The Davos discussions come as leading export nations and the World Trade Organization intensify efforts to relaunch negotiations ahead of a decisive meeting in Hong Kong in December designed to push Doha to completion in 2006.
The G-20 developing countries, which helped derail trade talks in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003, want to press rich states to agree what they see as fairer global trade rules, even as G-20 nations grapple with contentious issues among themselves
Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said they hoped to define their positions in the G-20 meeting but sticking points remained in the fiercely contested areas of services and agriculture.
Amorim told Reuters that Brazil, G-20 leader and Latin America's most populous country, was optimistic on Doha but unflinching on the sticking point of agriculture. "The important thing is ... being sure that there will be a slash in agriculture subsidies in general and an elimination of export subsidies for agriculture," he said.
Rich WTO states agreed in principle last year to eliminate export subsidies, limit other subsidies for farming and lower trade barriers. But getting agreement on when the cuts are made and by how much remains a huge obstacle.
The trade ministers will meet on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which has heard ringing cries from world leaders on the need to help Africa, in part by opening Western markets to its agricultural goods. "We need to make the concerns of the poorest countries, in Africa in particular, a top priority for the Doha Round," French President Jacques Chirac told delegates at the forum.
Late on Thursday, World Trade Organization chief Supachai Panitchpakdi said he had "real concerns" about delays. Negotiators must meet a series of deadlines starting as early as next month if the Doha round, already behind schedule, is to conclude successfully within two years.
The "mini-ministerial" meeting today will be attended US Trade Rep. Robert Zoellick and European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. Following Davos, Zoellick aims to meet Amorim to try to revive moribund talks on the so-called Free Trade Area of the Americas, which would tear down trade barriers among every country in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba.
© Arab News 2005
