TOYAKO, Japan, July 10 (PTI): World leaders at a summit of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised powers have expressed their "strong will" to conclude an "ambitious and comprehensive" World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha agreement, while addressing issues like spiralling oil and food prices and fight against protectionism.
"We are strongly committed to use opportunities of globalisation for the benefit of our citizens and global growth," the G8 summit leaders declaration said.
"We reaffirmed our commitment to resist protectionist pressures and expressed our strong will to work towards the conclusion of an ambitious, balanced and comprehensive WTO Doha agreement," it said.
The WTO head Pascal Lamy has called a meeting on July 21 of trade ministers from key players, aimed at narrowing differences and concluding trade negotiations involving 152 WTO member nations.
The Doha round of trade liberalisation negotiations, launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, has remained inconclusive with all sides refusing to make big concessions.
Talks are stuck due to disagreements between rich and developing countries over removal of subsidies and trade barriers for agricultural and industrial products.
During the meeting, leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US noted that global growth has moderated, but they remained positive about future growth.
Simultaneously, they also agreed on the need to address, in particular, issues of elevated oil and food prices and global inflationary pressure, stability of the financial markets and fight against protectionism.
"With regard to strengthening resilience of the financial system, we stressed upon the importance of rapidly implementing all recommendations by the financial stability forum," the G8 leaders said.
The meeting reaffirmed the important role of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and welcomed the progress on its reform to date. The meeting also supported further progress on this front.
In response to the sharp rise in oil prices, the leaders agreed to improve balance between supply and demand through efforts and dialogue by both producing and consuming countries. Global crude oil prices have doubled in the last one year, crossing 140 dollars a barrel.
"We emphasised the need for increased production and refining capacities as well as expanded investment on the supply side, and reiterated the importance to make further efforts to improve energy efficiency as well as pursue energy diversification on the demand side."
"In this regard, we proposed holding an energy forum to focus on energy efficiency and new technologies," the statement said.
Japan has offered to host the meeting this year. It is important that the meeting is closely coordinated with a follow-up meeting in London to the recent Jeddah meeting.
Recognising the need for greater transparency of energy markets, "we supported the analysis on real and financial factors behind the recent surge in oil and commodity prices and the efforts taken by relevant national authorities and international organisations including for increased transparency of commodity futures markets," it said.
