January 8, 2009

Outgoing US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said Wednesday (January 7) negotiations on a global trade round should step back from the limelight over the coming year and focus on quiet confidence-building.

 

"I think there is an opportunity right now to step back, review where we are in the Doha Round and take some time to move forward," she told journalists after a farewell meeting with World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy here.

 

Schwab, a key player in the faltering attempts to open up global markets for agriculture, industrial goods and services since she took office in 2006, is due to stand down January 20 with the departure of the Bush administration.

 

Schwab said that despite the repeated failure of high-profile meetings of ministers in recent years that were aimed at forging an agreement at the WTO, a lot of incremental technical progress had been achieved in negotiations to prepare for each of those gatherings.

 

"I don't think that suspension is the answer so much as quiet behind-the- scenes kind of work," she explained after being asked about the possibility of suspending the Doha negotiations in 2010.

 

Some trade specialists have suggested that the current global economic downturn is conducive to protectionist sentiment and that it would be risky to re-launch free trade talks while industrialized, emerging and developing nations are more intent on defending their own economies.

 

Schwab admitted that there were still "a variety of irreconcilable differences" that had prevented a new ministerial meeting taking shape at the WTO last month.

 

She suggested that rapidly growing emerging economies, which are ranked among developing nations in the WTO, should be able to make more concessions in the Doha round of talks.

 

"There is a big difference between what we should expect of a China, Brazil or an India and what we should expect of a Kenya, for example. There is a difference in terms of the contribution that the emerging markets should make."

 

The negotiations were launched in the Qatari capital in 2001 to help poor countries take advantage of free and fair trade, but have missed several deadlines due to a range of disagreements between the 153 WTO members.

 

Developing countries - including the Asian powerhouses of China and India - want the industrialized world to scrap agricultural export subsidies, while Western powers are seeking greater access for their products in emerging markets.

 

The United States has frequently been at odds with developing and emerging countries as well as with the European Union on subsidies.

 

Schwab defended the Bush administration's record on international trade, pointing to the expansion of US free trade agreements with other nations from three to 16, the US response to trade disputes resolved by the WTO, and some concessions during Doha negotiations.

 

"I think the Bush administration trade legacy is by any definition a strong one," she said.

 

The US trade representative indicated that a bilateral deal with Mercosur was a distant prospect as long as there were differences within the South American trade bloc about global trade policy. Formed in 1991, Mercosur includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.