Nations Losing Confidence in Doha Trade Talks
USTR Kirk says uncertainty leading to a lot of bilateral deals.
Compiled by staff
Published: Feb 1, 2012
Rich nations have lost confidence in the capacity of the World Trade Organization Doha Round to produce a global trade agreement. That was the message delivered by trade ministers from the U.S., EU, and Australia at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said that explains the recent uptick in bilateral and regional trade deals.
"In the short term I think you are going to see more and more countries turn to bilateral, regional engagements," Kirk said. "It's because of the difficulty of finding consensus among 153 very diverse economies."
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy acknowledged that a successful conclusion of the Doha Round talks was still several years off. But he questioned the value of trade liberalization through bilateral and regional negotiations.
"With all these bilateral trade agreements all over the place, not more than 15% of world trade is de facto regulated by bilateral agreements," Lamy said. "Why? Because business is reluctant to enter into the preference game in that it implies certification and red tape."
Kirk, meanwhile, said Washington was counting on the WTO to compel China to live up to its market access obligations.
"We do not want a trade war with China," Kirk said. "China is very quickly become one our top four trading partners; it is our number one agricultural trading partner. We think it is a great thing that China has gone through the explosive growth that it has, that's why we invited them into the World Trade Organization; that's how we credential trade. But it doesn't work if you only take from the system and believe you can deprive the rest of us the access to the markets that we've so freely grant yours."
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