Ministers from over 35 countries meeting in New Delhi affirmed their commitment Thursday to moving swiftly to wrap up a new global free-trade pact and help speed up economic recovery. "There was a unanimous affirmation of the need to expeditiously conclude the Doha Round, particularly in the present critical global economic situation," said a statement issued by host nation India after the first day of talks.
While the statement made no mention of a time frame, World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy said he believed agreement could be achieved in 2010 as long as there was the political will. "The meeting can be the real beginning of the end-game," said Lamy. Top industrial nations and five emerging economies, including India and China, agreed in July to conclude the Doha Round of WTO-led talks in 2010.
But Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma told the meeting attended by key trade players such as the European Union, the US and China there were still a "large number of unresolved issues" in areas such as farm subsidies. WTO members need to prepare "an agreed roadmap for overall negotiations," said Sharma in a five-star hotel in the leafy diplomatic quarter that served as venue for the closed-door talks Sharma, facing pressure from a rally of thousands of farmers in the heart of New Delhi, also reminded developed nations any new pact should help the poor.
"This (development) mandate is the bedrock of the Doha Round," he said, according to a copy of speech distributed to journalists. As he spoke, a crowd of farmers and social activists estimated by police to number at least 10,000, blocked a main thoroughfare in the city's centre to demand the government ditch Doha.
"We're afraid the government will sign the pact. The rich countries with their subsidies will destroy Indian farmers," Ajmer Singh Gill, a senior leader of the Bharat Kisan Union (Indian Farmers' Union), told AFP. The Doha Round began in 2001 with the aim of boosting global commerce to help developing countries, but deadlock between the major trading blocs has dashed repeated attempts to forge a pact.
India's disagreement with the United States over subsidy protection for poor farmers contributed to the collapse of the negotiations in Geneva in July 2008. Now, with new governments in Washington and New Delhi, there is renewed hope for the success of another drive. The South Asian giant has grabbed the initiative to try to re-energise the stalled negotiations.
The two days of informal ministerial level talks in New Delhi are seen as preparation for further progress at a meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 wealthy and emerging nations in Pittsburgh later this month. Indian officials stressed the New Delhi meeting was designed to build momentum and would not feature a breakthrough on the myriad sticking points.
In order for a final deal, all 153 WTO members must agree to a pact that would radically reduce subsidies given to North American and European farmers while lowering other trade barriers. Countries such as India are afraid to open their markets and the United States and the European Union are reluctant to abandon large agricultural subsidies that enjoy huge political popularity.