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| Sunday, 18 December 2005 |
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Poorest nations join forces for WTO trade deal HONG KONG - Developing countries closed ranks on Friday to push their agenda at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks, as the United States and the European Union exchanged accusations of intransigence with time running out for a global deal that could lift millions out of poverty. Trade officials from more than 110 poor countries were due to meet later in the day to forge a common negotiating stance on some of their vital concerns, said Madun Dulloo, the trade minister from the tiny African nation of Mauritius. He said poor countries needed to work more closely to make sure the development agenda of the so-called Doha round of trade talks remains in focus. So far, the talks mired in an impasse over the thorny issue of agricultural trade have offered little hope to poor countries, a World Bank official said. Meetings this week in Hong Kong aimed at laying the groundwork for a WTO treaty on freer trade have paid lip service to the world's poorest, but have failed to break a deadlock over tariffs on farm products from developing nations, said Danny Leipziger, a vice president of the bank. "The major trading economies of the developed world are keeping the big issues off the table, and as long as that happens, the poor will suffer; they will not get the chance they need to earn more from selling their goods on world markets," he said. Developing nations decided to join forces after the United States and Japan backtracked on a proposal to allow duty-free and quota-free imports from the 32 least developed countries. The countries, which have an annual per-capita income of less than œ425, want duty-free access for all products, but the US and Japan say they want to be able to limit the list of products and countries. For instance, the US is reluctant to give duty-free access to textile products from Bangladesh. Japan has problems with putting rice on the list. A US trade representative, Rob Portman, said that it would be difficult for him to defend duty-free access for Bangladeshi textiles because those exports "are incredibly competitive". Agricultural issues have been the major obstacle in the six-day talks, now half-way over, and continue to hold up progress on reaching a broad agreement that would slash trade barriers around the world. There was a new round of sniping when Honduras, a big banana exporter, said it might reject an overall agreement unless the EU agrees to reform its banana import policies, which favour former European colonies in the Caribbean and Africa. Courtesy: The Scotsman |
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