To reach a deal, said the US ambassador to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) Michael Punke, big emerging countries like China, Brazil and
India should accept that their booming economies meant they must open up their
markets more.
WTO members have drawn up a program of intensive talks for
the next few weeks, after leaders of the G20 rich and emerging economies called
for the Doha round to be finished and said 2011 was a window of opportunity.
Economists say a Doha agreement could boost the world
economy by hundreds of billions of dollars. But the nine-year-old talks have
repeatedly missed deadlines and many negotiators are skeptical a deal is
possible now as countries are wary of opening up their markets if that
endangers jobs.
Punke said the complex negotiations would require so much
detailed work that a deal could not be done unless the real give and take of
bargaining over substantive issues starts now.
“For 2011 to be a window of opportunity we have to all be
negotiating effective immediately. That’s the logistical reality of the Doha
negotiations,” he told a briefing.
“There’s an awful lot of work to be done.” DISAPPOINTING
CONTACTS Talks next week on agriculture and industrial goods - the core issues
in the Doha talks - would show whether Washington’s partners were really
willing to deal, he said.
A meeting of key trade ministers at the World Economic Forum
in the Swiss resort of Davos at the end of this month would not yield a
substantive breakthrough but would allow countries to signal whether they were
serious about the talks, he said.
Punke said recent contacts with China had been disappointing
as they had not gone into the detailed negotiations the United States had
looked for.
The United States had given China a detailed list of
products where it was seeking better access, but at talks in Washington in
December China did not respond, he said.
However, it was encouraging that Commerce Minister Chen
Deming indicated to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk that it would consider sectoral
deals — a long-standing US demand.
In sectoral deals, groups of participating countries would
go beyond any overall tariff cuts agreed by the WTO’s 153 members to eliminate
duties in certain industrial sectors.
Washington believes such deals, for instance in chemicals,
are essential to open up world trade, but emerging countries have reservations.
Punke said China was now the world’s second biggest producer
of chemicals and fifth biggest exporter, and the United States wanted the same
access in China for its chemicals manufacturers as Chinese companies already
enjoyed on the US market.
He urged Brazil to sign up to the existing information
technology agreement, which eliminates tariffs on some high-tech products and
which many developing countries take part in.
Recent tariff increases by Brazil were a “stick in the eye”
for its trading partners and made the Doha talks harder, while India was
sending mixed signals, he said.
Punke said the United States accepted it would have to make
further concessions in negotiations but the central question was whether the
emerging economies were ready to do more.
“If they’re prepared to accept that responsibility we’ll
have a successful outcome,” he said. “If they’re not prepared to accept that
responsibility, we won’t.”
