Rising clout of emerging markets scuttles WTO talks
The Doha round of the WTO talks, seven years in the making, look set to drag on as once again the 153 countries involved failed to reach an agreement.
Discussions, held in Geneva, Switzerland, were suspended yesterday evening as it became clear that talks would fail as key countries such as the US, China, India and the EU failed to come to an agreement on agricultural issues. Ministers had struggled for more than a week to reach a consensus on a trade pact.
Emerging markets like India, Brazil and China were hoping the US and the EU would lower their subsidies for own agriculture production and lower tariffs.
The US, however, could not agree with the emerging Asian countries on farm import rules. These would have allowed the countries to protect poor farmers by imposing a tariff on certain goods in the event of a drop in prices or a surge in imports.
India, China and the US could not agree on the tariff threshold for such an event Washington said that the 'safeguard clause' protecting developing nations from unrestricted imports had been set too low.
Countries like Paraguay and Uruguay said that the proposals on the table would allow some major developing economies to close off their markets to other developing world agricultural exporters, like them - interrupting normal trade flows.
China said the collapse of the talks was a serious setback for the world economy, while the EU described it as 'heartbreaking'.
The WTO chief, Pascal Lamy, said he would not abandon his efforts to find an agreement.
France meanwhile blamed big emerging nations for the failure of the talks, but said the collapse of talks in Geneva was "not the end of the world."
Barnier also questioned whether the WTO was the best forum for discussion of matters on agriculture and called for alternative ways in which issues of food and agriculture could be discussed adding that the talks risk neglecting the poorest countries.
