BANGALORE, May 22: The success of global trade liberalisation talks is at “serious” risk unless rich countries dismantle trade barriers and grant market access to developing nations, a World Bank official warned on Thursday.

“The leadership now has to be with the rich countries,” said Nicholas Stern, chief economist of the World Bank, adding that rich nations had barriers in agriculture, textiles and manufacturing.

“They have barriers precisely in place where developing countries have a comparative advantage. Unless you see some serious movement on agriculture there will not be any progress of any serious kind,” Stern told researchers and officials at a conference here.

“The expansion of market access in agriculture is of fundamental importance in the coming weeks ... and if we do not do it then, the Doha round is under serious risk,” Stern said on the second day of the Bank’s Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics.—AFP