The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE current year, according to the chief of the World Trade Organisation, is 'crucial' for the outcome of the Doha Round of global trade talks. 'It's an Olympic year for China and may be an Olympic year for Doha too,' the WTO director general Pascal Lamy reportedly said during his visit to Beijing recently. He said what he saw from WTO members was a desire to try to finish the negotiations - lingering on for six years - some time during this year. His prognosis was that it was doable as they now had both political and technical conditions to make it possible.

The Doha Round initiated by the WTO in 2001, has been working towards a

global trade agreement that would liberalise markets primarily agriculture,

manufacturing and services, to reduce poverty and promote development. But

disagreement persists on the size of tariff cuts, and the treatment developing nations should receive. On the No 1 issue, agriculture, developing nations want the rules - for both subsidies and protection - to be rebalanced in their favour. Another pressing issue is industrial tariffs, and greater market access is needed in both developing and developed countries.

An informal meeting of some trade ministers as scheduled in Davos in months would present a clear view of all the possible next steps to be taken. China now has a more level playing field globally with reduced subsidies and more open markets. China's strategic interest is to keep foreign markets open and to open them even more but it also has some defensive interests like agriculture. Developing countries recently welcomed WTO proposals to reduce barriers to farm trade but voiced reservations on those for further opening their own markets for industrial goods. The draft agreement on agriculture presented by the WTO more than a fortnight ago is a good basis for further work. But the emerging market countries were less enthusiastic about WTO draft on manufactured goods.