BRUSSELS, Dec 6: A majority of people in the United States and most of Europe’s big countries believe free trade cuts local jobs and mainly benefits multinationals and economies such as China and India, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Days before key talks on a new world trade deal originally billed as a way to help poor countries, the survey showed two-thirds of respondents on both sides of the Atlantic had a positive view of international trade in general.

However, in the United States, Germany, Poland and especially in France and Italy — although not in Britain — most respondents said freer trade reduced employment in their home countries.

Fifty-eight per cent of Europeans and Americans would support raising tariffs — the opposite of what the World Trade Organization (WTO) is trying to do — to protect jobs.

The poll was conducted between Sept 16 and Oct 3 among a random sample of about 1,000 adults in each of the countries.

It was commissioned by the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), a trans-Atlantic think tank.

Next week, nearly 150 member states of the WTO will meet in Hong Kong for what was once planned as a chance to agree on a full blueprint for a new WTO trade round.

However, with countries such as Brazil, the United States and Australia accusing the European Union of seeking to protect its farmers too much, and Europe demanding concessions in other areas, a deal must wait until next year, negotiators say now.

The survey showed 82 per cent of respondents believed multinationals and fast-growing developing economies such as China and India benefited most from freer trade.

Seventy-three per cent believed people in rich countries would also gain, followed by 62 per cent who said people in poor countries stood to benefit and 52 per cent agreeing that Africans would be better off with freer trade.

John Audley of the GMF said the findings showed governments had failed to convince their public of the nominal aim of the WTO push, officially called the Doha Development Round.

“The idea of a round rooted on a commitment to development looks hollow to the majority of voters in the United States and five countries in Europe,” he said.

Among the five European countries covered by the survey, France slipped from having a majority who agreed with optimistic statements about trade in 2004 to being 57 per cent pessimistic about the issue, the poll showed.

France has been the most vocal defender of protection for its farmers in the WTO round.

Italy, where the emergence of China and other low-cost manufacturers threatens the country’s many small companies, was even more downbeat, with 61 per cent of respondents falling into the pessimist camp.

Britain was the most positive with 90 per cent of respondents classed as trade optimists, followed by Germany with 79 per cent, Poland on 77 per cent and the United States with 74 per cent. —Reuters