Brazil said on Monday that the Doha round of global trade talks is not dead and that it is convinced that the negotiations will be concluded successfully. "The (Doha) round is not going to die. It is alive and well," Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters in Rio de Janeiro.
"I'm convinced that the talks are going to be concluded and in a successful way." Amorim spoke as trade negotiators from around the world prepared to meet this week in Geneva in an attempt to breathe life into the long-running trade talks, which have floundered because of disagreements between rich and poor nations.
The so-called Doha round of trade talks was launched in 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the United States to boost the global economy through trade and to help lift developing countries out of poverty. But the talks have hit several road blocks as developing countries and rich nations struggle to find common ground on the former giving greater access to industrial goods and services and the latter opening their markets to more farm goods.
Amorim, who has been a major player in the talks from the outset, said he believes it is possible to reach an agreement by the end of the year. But for that to happen, he said all parties need to find common ground by November.
"We should make a common effort as if that were a fatal deadline," he said. Brazil, an agricultural powerhouse, has been a leader of a bloc of developing nations sparring with the United States and other rich countries. Officials in other countries have struck a more cautious note in recent days, with some even saying that they thought an agreement was unlikely in the near future. Brazil said on Friday it was ready to make concessions in its industrial sector, but its own demands for better access for its agriculture exports must be addressed.