Strive for a Doha deal

Negotiators should put more emphasis on helping poor countries to make the ongoing week-long WTO trade talks a real opportunity to save the seven-year-old Doha Round.

Billed as the "development round", a Doha global trade deal is supposed to help poorer countries by opening markets to their exports and reducing rich countries' subsidies.

Such a deal is surely crucial to achieving the Millennium Development Goal the United Nations set to reduce poverty around the world.

Moreover, the food crisis that has so far hit some developing countries the hardest only makes it more necessary than ever to create a more efficient and fair global food trade.

Trade and agricultural ministers from 35 major World Trade Organization members have gathered in Geneva with the aim to make a breakthrough in the two key areas of the Doha Round negotiations - agriculture and NAMA (non-agricultural market access).

Their immediate task is to establish the so-called modalities of agriculture and NAMA, which refer to the method and formula of tariff and subsidy cuts.

The WTO Doha Round negotiations were launched in 2001, but the past seven years have seen the talks missing repeated deadlines as a result of differences between the developing and the developed countries over agriculture and non-agricultural market access.

If negotiators can bridge huge differences and unblock a trade deal this time, their efforts will give a much-needed boost to the world's flagging economy while promoting the economic development of WTO members, especially the developing members.

However, expectations remain low on the prospect of a Doha WTO deal being concluded soon to remove the distortions of agricultural subsidies.

Rich countries should agree to substantially cut their trade-distorting farm support, as the soaring global food prices have put them in a better position to do so nowadays.

Meanwhile, the particular interests and concerns of poor developing countries should be effectively addressed if WTO members are to achieve the development goal set forth for the Doha Round.

Failure to conclude a Doha deal soon would not only be a blow for the global trade system but also frustrate developing countries' response to the food crisis.

It is high time for all trade ministers to work together with a concerted mind, collective wisdom and maximum courage so as to pave a solid ground for the successful conclusion of the negotiations.

(China Daily 07/24/2008 page8)