Major WTO members agree to finish global trade talks in 2006

Asian Economic News, Jan 31, 2005

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 30 Kyodo

A group of World Trade Organization members agreed Saturday to accelerate global trade liberalization talks and bring them to a successful conclusion in 2006.

To this end, ministers from more than 20 nations and territories pledged to speed up the pace of negotiations in agriculture, industrial goods and other key areas, Swiss Economics Minister Jeseph Deiss said in a chairman's summary.

Their one-day informal ministerial meeting held in this Swiss ski resort was intended to advance the Doha Round of global market-opening talks under the aegis of the WTO ahead of a key formal ministerial conference to be held in Hong Kong in December.

They agreed that the WTO should draft agreements on agricultural and nonagricultural products by the end of July after negotiating at another informal WTO ministerial gathering in Kenya in March and on the fringes of an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ministerial meeting in May.

The draft agreements should include specific targets for reducing tariffs on agricultural and industrial goods so WTO members can narrow down the sticking points ahead of the Hong Kong conference, Deiss said.

The ministers also agreed to step up negotiations on trade in services and trade facilitation through such measures as simplifying customs procedures in order to produce a balanced deal, he said.

The participants in Saturday's talks included Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, who has been nominated as U.S. deputy secretary of state, and European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

The meeting coincided with the annual five-day gathering of the World Economic Forum, which ends Sunday.

Earlier Saturday, 10 farm product-importing countries, including Japan, South Korea and Switzerland, held a meeting and agreed to hold more talks if necessary to deal with any future situations in which they need to make political decisions on liberalizing their farm sectors, according to negotiation sources.

The Doha Round, launched in November 2001, has been stalemated as developed and developing countries remain at odds over key issues ranging from tariff cuts to farm subsidies.

Last August, the WTO extended the deadline for the 148 WTO members to wrap up the Doha Round by at least one year from the originally set date of Jan. 1 this year following the collapse of a WTO ministerial conference in September 2003 in Mexico.

If a basic deal is struck in Hong Kong, WTO members will work out further details such as the rates of tariff cuts on individual products and reach an agreement as a single package.