WASHINGTON, July 26: The world’s most powerful business lobby groups joined forces on Wednesday to appeal for a swift resumption of collapsed talks on freeing up global trade.

The groups represented nearly all the biggest players involved in the World Trade Organisation’s so-called Doha Development Agenda (DDA), which was put on hold this week.

The signatories included the US Chamber of Commerce, the European Union’s UNICE confederation, the Keidanren organisation in Japan, the Business Council of Australia and Brazil's National Confederation of Industry.

“The suspension of the talks could lead to a failure of the Doha Round, which would undermine the promise of economic growth inherent in the DDA, and result in the loss of opportunities for WTO members to gain the tremendous benefits that accrue from trade liberalisation,” they said in a statement.

“In order to avoid this situation, we strongly hope that the negotiation will resume as early as possible.

“We are committed to working for the ultimate success of the DDA negotiations in achieving an ambitious outcome, and to enhancing the multilateral trading system,” the groups said.

The 149-nation Doha Round negotiations were suspended on Monday after major trading powers failed again to agree on cuts in farm subsidies and customs duties which would have broadened free trade and helped fight poverty.

The United States found itself at bitter loggerheads with the EU and with developing nations such as Brazil and India as the Geneva negotiations collapsed into acrimony and finger-pointing.—AFP