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WASHINGTON: The United States expects a world trade ministerial meeting in India this week to be an "important step" in efforts to conclude the Doha free trade accord, President Barack Obama's top trade envoy said.
The two-day informal talks beginning Thursday in New Delhi will be attended by World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Pascal Lamy and ministers from rich and emerging nations with sharp differences on issues such as farm subsidies and tariffs on industrial products.
"I think this ministerial... can be a very important step for our goal for the successful completion of the Doha round of negotiations," US Trade Representative Ron Kirk told reporters before leaving Tuesday for the meeting.
"We all jointly share a common objective and belief that completion of the Doha round can be a key element to helping the world recover from this current economic crisis," Kirk said.
He added that the talks provided a critical "window" between now and the WTO ministerial meeting later this year in Geneva, giving countries "the clarity needed to understand the opportunities for meaningful market access (and) allow Doha to come to successful conclusion."
The talks are also seen as critical as they come ahead of a meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 developed and emerging nations in the US city of Pittsburgh on September 24-25.
India's new trade negotiator, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, has said he wants a deal, but his ministry sought to manage expectations about the meeting's outcome.
"This is not going to be a negotiating forum," Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar, the top civil servant in India's commerce ministry, told reporters last week. "We are looking for a commitment to re-engage on Doha."
The Doha round of talks began in 2001 with the aim of boosting global commerce to help developing countries, but deadlock between the major trading blocs has dashed repeated attempts to forge a new pact.
The last push in July last year in Geneva ended in failure, but with new governments installed in Washington and the host nation India, there is renewed hope for another drive for success sometime next year.
"I think what may make this different is that with the change in the administration -- in the United States and in India certainly, in South Africa, in other countries -- you have a new cast of countries with new leadership that have... desire to try to make this happen," Kirk said.
The WTO talks involve the 153 nations of the world trade body who must all agree to a pact that would radically reduce the value of subsidies given to farmers while reducing tariffs and other trade barriers.
President Obama has joined other world leaders in calling for a successful conclusion of the Doha talks, but analysts say he faces pressure from domestic industry groups who are likely to seek protection.
Since he came to office in January, Obama has avoided any showdown with labor groups who have wide influence in his Democratic Party and who are generally sceptical about free-trade agreements.
Ahead of the G20 summit, Obama will elaborate on his administration's trade policy -- how he "sees trade as (an) integral part our overall economic strategy," Kirk said.
Although Obama had already laid a broad framework for US trade policy to Congress, "I do think the president will have more to say about the role trade will play in our overall economic recovery sometime between now and the G20 summit," Kirk added.
A key test of Obama's trade policy or any protectionist tendencies under his administration will be a decision he has to make this month on a union-led plan to slap punitive duties on tire imports from China to save jobs at home.
Obama is required to make the decision just ahead of hosting Chinese President Hu Jintao at the G20 summit.
- AFP/yb
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