Developing countries to hold WTO talks amid growing pessimism

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GENEVA, Nov 15 (AFP): Developing country trade ministers will meet in Geneva today amid increasing pessimism on chances for a breakthrough in multilateral trade liberalisation talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Eight ministers from the Group of Twenty (G20) group of countries, including India, South Africa, Argentina and Tanzania, will meet at the behest of Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who is the country's chief trade negotiator.
"It's probably one of the last chances for our collective voices to be not only heard but listened to," Amorim told reporters when the meeting was first announced last month.
The six year-old Doha round of talks on cutting trade barriers to agriculture, industrial goods and services is still deadlocked despite a flurry of talks at WTO headquarters in Geneva.
Developing and emerging nations are seeking cuts in rich country farm subsidies and in import tariffs for agricultural produce, while industralised nations want better access to industrial markets in poorer economies in return.
Amorim struck a reasonably upbeat note earlier this week, telling the Brazilian press he still thought it was possible to conclude the Doha round within one or two years.
But the fissures between North and South remain as deep as ever, and there are also disagreements amongst developing countries themselves, trade sources said.
For example, representatives of the Mercosur trading bloc in Latin America-Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay and Paraguay-proposed late last month that developing country members of customs unions be able to exclude 16 per cent of industrial products from any tariff cuts.
The move sparked opposition from fellow G20 -- but non-Mercosur-members Mexico and Costa Rica, according to sources close to the negotiations.
Neither country is set to send representatives to Thursday's meeting.
China further ratcheted up the pressure on the WTO talks last week by threatening to veto any proposals on cutting customs tariffs if its requests are not met.
The European Union reacted sharply to the Chinese intervention, warning it could spark "political reactions" given China's weight in the world economy, trade sources said.
The United States meanwhile has called on China and other developing countries such as Brazil and India to demonstrate more flexibility on industrial goods in order for the US administration to convince Congress to approve any final deal.
Meanwhile, the WTO will turn its attention from the moribund Doha round to helping poor countries incorporate trade into their development and poverty reduction efforts at a conference here next week.
"With Aid for Trade, we have the tools to break the shackles that have been holding back the trade potential of many poor countries, such as substandard infrastructure, lack of modern technology and inadequate financing," said WTO Director General Pascal Lamy in a statement.
The Aid for Trade process, launched at the WTO's ministerial conference in Hong Kong in December 2005, aims to help countries build capacity and infrastructure to take full advantage of a successful Doha deal on reducing barriers to global commerce.
At least nine ministers are expected to attend the three-day conference, which starts on November 19, along with World Bank and International Monetary Fund heads Robert Zoellick and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told journalists.
He said it was vital that the Aid for Trade process continued regardless of the state of other WTO negotiations.