LONDON, Dec 1: Finance officials from the world’s rich nations should use a weekend summit in London to push for progress on lagging global trade talks that could potentially benefit the world’s poor, senior US Treasury officials say. Treasury Under Secretary Tim Adams, speaking to reporters ahead of this weekend’s Group of Seven finance ministers’ meeting, said Washington wants a reinvigorated effort to reach an outline for a global trade deal in upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) discussions in Hong Kong.
Sharp differences over slashing rich nations’ farm subsidies and opening markets worldwide have sapped hopes that a scheduled Dec. 13-18 conference in Hong Kong among all 148 WTO members can make much progress toward reaching an outline for a deal. We’re just days ahead of the Hong Kong ministerial and progress is slow so we hope to give negotiations a much-needed shot in the arm, an adrenaline punch, Adams said. Progress there is critical for global growth and eliminating subsidies would be invaluable for the developing world.
Finance ministers from the G7 — Britain, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — meet on Friday evening and Saturday.
There also are weekend meetings in Geneva between key WTO trade officials, and Adams suggested a coordinated message from finance and trade officials would help give the Hong Kong talks more impetus.
What the US is endeavoring to do is to issue a very strong statement about what a successful round of trade negotiations could do for global growth, Adams said. The benefits from a successful round would swamp anything that we could hope to do with official development assistance.
HELP THE POOR: The G7 finance chiefs are being joined by ministers from fast-developing economies including India, Brazil, China, South Africa and Russia at the weekend talks.
They represent countries that would benefit from fewer agricultural subsidies and, in that sense, bring more force to the table for a reduction in protective tariffs that rich countries maintain.—Reuters
