WASHINGTON, Nov 23: The Bush administration plans to unveil an ambitious proposal next week that would require World Trade Organization members to reduce tariffs on industrial goods to zero by 2015, sources said on Friday.

The proposal would include politically sensitive items such as textiles, which benefit from substantial US tariff protection. However, by requiring other countries to also go to zero, the proposal would create new export opportunities for US textile producers, the sources said.

The Bush administration is expected to unveil its proposal as early as Tuesday, but it will not formally table the paper at the WTO in Geneva until early December, the sources said.

The United States has already proposed reducing tariffs on agricultural goods to 25 per cent or less from the current world average of 62 per cent. The average US agricultural tariff would fall to five per cent from 12 per cent under that plan.

On Thursday, US Commerce Secretary Don Evans signaled the administration’s intention to put forward an aggressive proposal for industrial tariffs.

Without laying it all out, we certainly want to go down the road of heading toward a tariff-free world of trade, Evans said. Our responsibility as a country is to lead this world toward a system of free and open markets.

WTO members launched a new round of trade talks a year ago in Doha, Qatar, with the goal of reaching agreement by 2005.

The United States is under pressure from developing countries to open its market more, particularly in the textile and agricultural sectors.

At the same time, US manufacturers and other exporters want to see deep cuts in the industrial tariffs of developing countries. These tariffs tend to be much higher than in the United States.

Earlier this year, the National Foreign Trade Council called for the elimination of tariffs on all industrial goods by 2020.

The National Association of Manufacturers also lobbied the Bush administration for an ambitious tariff proposal.

US business groups said they were impressed with the Bush administration’s plan.—Reuters