PARIS, June 5 (Reuters): Ministers from trade powers will try to keep struggling world talks alive Thursday with supporters saying a deal could help offset the global food crisis and soften the economic slowdown.
Ministers from the United States, the European Union, India, Brazil, Japan and other World Trade Organisation (WTO) countries will discuss ways out of the stalemate with just weeks remaining before the WTO's Doha round risks suffering another long delay.
Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean, one of the strongest advocates of a push to finish off the round, said trade had historically helped drive world economic growth.
"Each round has produced a new impetus," he told a conference at the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD). "That's why securing an outcome in Doha is so critical and more so on the current climate not just because of the economic uncertainty but because of ... high food prices."
A United Nations summit on the global food crisis in Rome Wednesday thrashed out ways of tackling the surge in global prices which has aggravated the problems of nearly one billion people facing hunger.
"If we're ever to achieve the breakthrough in agriculture and the reduction in subsidies it's got to be at the time in which producers are getting the best returns. And if we can't get that outcome now we will never get it," Crean said.
New Zealand, once one of the most subsidized countries, had found that eliminating subsidies was good for the economy and good for the environment, Trade Minister Phil Goff said.
"Poor countries rightly blame subsidies and trade barriers for denying them the opportunity to earn their living in the global market place," he told the conference.
The WTO's negotiations for an agreement to lower barriers to commerce worldwide, now in their seventh year, suffered the latest in a series of setbacks Monday. A WTO mediator gave up trying to bridge big differences between rich and poor countries on how to free up trade in industrial goods, one of the pillars of the round.
The European Commission said Tuesday the Doha talks risked suspension unless ministers meeting in Paris sent a clear signal that they would engage more seriously.
France, the champion of Europe's farmers, says the EU is making too many concessions in agriculture for little in return from developing countries such as Brazil, India and China on industrial goods or services, areas where European business is looking to carve open new markets.
