By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS
Davos (Switzerland) : As trade ministers sought to re-launch the stalled global trade talks, India expressed concern that the US especially may not play ball because of political compulsions.
“My fear is that the US will get more protectionist in an election year,” said India’s Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, who is attending the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at this snow-capped Swiss ski resort.
“We hope that the developed countries will take the leadership in this round of negotiations,” Kamal Nath, who is seen an important leader of a large swathe of developing countries at the trade talks, told IANS Thursday.
He said India will press on for negotiations despite what many observers of the Doha Development Round say is imminent rejection of a text that has been billed as the basis of agreement.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also spoke about the importance of “the global expansion of free and fair trade” but felt US alone cannot ensure the success of the talks at the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO).
“It is not easy for a US president to advocate free and fair trade at a time of growing economic populism,” Rice told some 2,500 political, business and non-government leaders who have gathered for the annual networking event.
“But President (George W.) Bush and I remain committed to completing a successful Doha Round and Susan Schwab (US trade secretary), who is here in snow-covered Davos this evening, is working to do just that,” Rice added Wednesday.
The negotiations are stuck over several tracks, including a demand by developing countries asking rich nations to sharply cut their farm subsidies and a counter-demand on emerging nations to lower tariffs on manufactured goods from the West.
“President Bush has pledged that the United States will eliminate all tariffs, subsidies and barriers to the free flow of goods and services – including agriculture – as other nations do the same,” Rice said, but with a caveat.
“We expect our partners to join us in finding a way to make Doha a success.”
In speaking of “our partners” Rice may well have been referring to the European Union – as the mutual recrimination over huge subsidies paid to the farm sector has been partly responsible for the stalling of the global trade talks.
Apart from Kamal Nath and Schwab, another leading figure in the Geneva talks is present in Davos – European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson – but it was not immediately clear if the three of them would meet in this resort town.
Yet, the 150 member-states of the WTO are set to discuss some new proposals in agriculture and manufacturing soon and the dates being discussed are the end of January and early February.
(Dipankar De Sarkar can be contacted at [email protected])