GENEVA: Freer trade can help create jobs and support economic growth, and tariff-cutting accords should not be scaled back on account of the global downturn, top US and other officials said on Monday.
On the opening day of a World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Geneva, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy stressed a new global trade agreement could protect the economy from future shocks and encouraged a faster run at a Doha Round deal.
“Given the present pace, if they want to get there in ‘10, we will need an acceleration,” Lamy said, referring to the WTO’s 153 members who have been mired in Doha negotiations since 2001.
“How we organize this acceleration is probably NO. 1 on the to-do list after the ministerial conference,” he said.
“Time is running out, and it is not credible at this stage to see issues in isolation from the work and the achievements of the past eight years,” he said.
US Trade Rep. Ron Kirk later told Reuters that the ministers and senior officials gathered in Geneva needed to make sure trade can power continued growth and job creation.
“It’s an important opportunity for us to reaffirm the valuable role that liberalizing trade around the globe has in sustaining and promoting growth,” he said.
Criticism of the WTO and its free trade agenda has increased over the past year following the sharp global downturn which many have attributed to a lack of oversight and regulation of financial services.
This week’s conference falls on the 10th anniversary of a Seattle WTO ministerial made famous by violent protests that caused its collapse.
About 60 protesters, many wearing red clown noses, set up camp opposite the WTO conference center on the wet and bitterly cold opening day, displaying banners with slogans like “Stop destructive imports!!!”
Most sheltered in a tent but a few braved the weather to chant “Down, Down WTO” under the close watch of police. An anti-WTO demonstration in Geneva on Saturday turned violent, with protesters smashing the windows of banks, shops and hotels and setting cars on fire.
Doha negotiations are not on the formal agenda for this week’s ministerial because Lamy and government officials believe the talks are not ready for a high-level push toward agreement.
But the state of the round — launched in November 2001 to open markets and help developing countries grow through more trade — loomed large over the Geneva gathering.
