WTO chief sees determination to complete talks

The head of the World Trade Organisation said on Tuesday he sensed fresh determination to conclude the Doha round of talks, but added he would wait for "substance" beforre calling ministers together.
The WTO negotiations on lowering barriers to commerce were halted in July after major powers failed to break a long-running deadlock over the politically sensitive issue of farm trade.
However, a series of bilateral sessions between major trading states and blocs - such as the United States, Brazil, the European Union and Japan - have indicated flexibility, and trade ministers recently agreed in Davos to resume talks.
WTO chief Pascal Lamy told Reuters that pushing the talks forward would depend on the numbers negotiators come up with in cutting subsidies and industrial tariffs. "My sense is that they are actively engaged, but I haven't yet seen or heard enough numbers that would allow me to say: you guys come back round the table to negotiate the final details," Lamy said in an interview. "It all depends on the substance." The round was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001 to boost the global economy and lift millions out of poverty.
Lamy, concluding a tour of east Africa, said the continent would benefit most if the talks successfully led to a reduction of farm subsidies, industrial tariffs, removal of tariff escalation and improvement of customs procedures.
"There are a lot of potential benefits from this round for the vast majority of African countries which if the negotiations conclude will be there at no cost in terms of their own commitment on new market opening," Lamy said.
The key to a deal lies in getting deeper US cuts in farm subsidies, which developing countries say give farmers there an unfair market advantage, and in securing similar reforms from the EU, Japan and other big importers on farm tariff. Developing countries such as Brazil and India would have to open their markets mainly to industrial goods and services.
Lamy said although Africa will suffer erosion of key preferential trade deals, often criticised by anti-globalisation activists, in the end it would come out the winner.
"You cannot stop opening trade for the sake of keeping preferences. The benefits of opening trade are huge," he said. The WTO boss dismissed concerns Africans had been sidelined in the global trade talks and had remained as spectators waiting for rich countries to dictate the terms.