World Bank suggests limits on disputed WTO farm safeguard

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — World Bank chief Robert Zoellick on Monday suggested limits for a proposed agricultural safeguard that torpedoed WTO trade talks last month, saying the world's poor need a successful Doha Round.

"Given the high food prices around the world and the need for poor people to lower their cost of food, it just does not make sense for the Doha negotiations to founder upon this barrier," Zoellick said.

The World Trade Organization's Doha Round of talks collapsed in late July due to a row between India and the US over a special safeguard mechanism allowing nations to impose a special tariff on agricultural goods if imports surge or prices fall.

Zoellick said that major trade partners need to return to the negotiating table to find a compromise to...