US in fresh bid to revitalize stalled Doha trade talks

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2004

PARIS (AFP) — The United States has launched a fresh bid to revitalize the foundering Doha round of trade liberalization talks with a renewed call for an end to agricultural export subsidies.

The Financial Times newspaper reported Monday that US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick was to send a letter to all 148 members of the World Trade Organization outlining new ideas on which a negotiating framework could be worked out by the middle of the year.

The initiative would then be pursued at the next WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong near the end of 2004.

"We're trying to provide constructive leadership," he told the Financial Times in an interview. "I can't dictate."

Multilateral efforts to reduce world trade barriers, launched with great fanfare...