LONDON, Dec 3: World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy has warned that a crucial global trade agreement to boost commerce and reduce poverty was heading for "total failure".In an interview published in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Lamy said the Doha round of trade talks "now faces collapse" unless the US Congress takes action to save it.
Mr Lamy's concerns about the future of world's largest-ever multilateral trade negotiations were shared by Richard Lambert, the head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
Describing Mr Lamy's intervention as "deeply significant", Lambert said a failure to rescue the stalled talks would have "very serious consequences both in terms of promoting business and cutting poverty".
The WTO chief called on the EU and the US to make concessions for reviving the talks. In a stinging rebuke to the Western leaders, he said the global trading system "disfavours developing countries" and that some existing rules are "remnants of colonialism".
Stressing that the Doha talks were launched in 2001 as the "development round", Mr Lamy said failure would spark "a political backlash from the developing world". He said the Doha talks could progress only if the US Congress granted an extension to President Bush's "fast-track" trade negotiating authority, which expires next July.
“I accept the WTO round will now not be completed before July next year. The round will fail unless we get some sort of extension to the fast track. That is what needs to happen," the WTO chief added.
Without fast-track authority, WTO deals can be unpicked by the US lawmakers, making them unworkable. Since the Democrats took control of both Houses of Congress last month, with many candidates winning on protectionist tickets, most analysts think an extension is highly unlikely.
"It is true that Republicans have traditionally been more supportive of trade deals. But the Democrats need to remember that taking the US into multilateral agreements is a good thing," Mr Lamy said, adding that recent statements by Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, showed that the White House was now "fully engaged in trying to save the trade round".
Last week Paulson told the CBI that it would be "morally wrong" to give in to "protectionist elements", adding that these forces "needed to be confronted in a bipartisan way".
Commenting on Mr Lamy's claim that global trade rules are "colonial", Lambert said: "We are now beyond midnight on this trade deal -– so it's time to get tough and aggressive.”
