plan.

“As the world's two largest industrial groups with a combined membership accounting for over half of the world's manufacturing production, we call on our trade negotiators to make a bold move to bring the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations to a successful conclusion by the end of this year,”

the groups said in a joint statement.

“The major objective of our continued collaboration is to ensure that the priorities and commercial interests of the global industrial sector — which represents 75 per cent of global merchandise trade — are fully realised in the outcome of the Doha Round.”

The two groups acknowledged that a broad agreement on agriculture is a “critical step” to securing approval of the round but that they hoped for a comprehensive deal to lower trade barriers for manufactured goods, services and non-tariff barriers.

The 149-nation World Trade Organisation is still officially committed to a 12-month timetable for finishing the talks, a deadline which was set at its conference of trade ministers in Hong Kong last December.

The Doha Round talks have floundered since they began in the Qatari capital in 2001. The round was meant to end in 2004.

The ultimate goal is to slash trade barriers and use commerce to improve the lot of poor countries.

But negotiators have been unable to agree on the concessions required from different members, and that has led to a string of bust-ups and missed deadlines.

One problem would be that the US congressional “fast track” authority, which is seen as needed to win approval in Washington, expires in 2007.

The two business groups argued that a “minimalist” agreement where only developed countries contribute “is not an acceptable outcome, for it would fail to provide new market opportunities not just to industrial countries but also to developing countries.” —AFP