POTSDAM (Germany), May 19: G8 Finance Ministers on Saturday called for agreement on the Doha round of WTO trade talks “as soon as possible”. “We firmly believe that all participants have the responsibility to ensure a successful outcome of the Doha Development Round,” the finance ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States said in a statement issued at the end of a two-day meeting here.
World Trade Organisations negotiations aimed at reducing barriers to global commerce have gone nowhere for the past six years, with differences, notably on trade in agricultural products, blocking progress in the Doha Development Round, launched with great fanfare in the Qatari capital in 2001.
“It is necessary to achieve an ambitious balanced and comprehensive deal that delivers economic benefits for all members, enhances global growth and contributes to poverty reduction,” the communique said.
The G8 “remains committed to resisting protectionist sentiment,” the statement continued.
“We should strive to reach an agreement on the core modalities as soon as possible, which will require political will and additional efforts by all parties.”
Meanwhile, G8 ministers, under fire for failing to meet aid commitments to Africa, vowed on Saturday to make good on their pledges and called for “responsible” policies on lending to African countries.
Critics had accused the Group of Eight -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- of not meeting their promises to boost annual aid to the world's poorest countries by 50 billion dollars by 2010.
“We reaffirm our commitment to meeting our responsibilities as donors, in particular the importance of delivering on our aid commitments,” their final statement said at the end of a two-day meeting here.
On Friday, Ghana's finance minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu had expressed disappointment with the G8 action on development aid.
Baah-Wiredu had been invited to take part in the discussions, along with the finance ministers of four other African countries, Cameroon, Nigeria, Mozambique and South Africa.
“Improved financial governance and aid flows must go hand in hand if we are to tackle poverty,” the ministers said.
They encouraged borrowers and creditors to use the debt sustainability framework, an IMF-World Bank guide to lending practices.
For the borrowers, aid had to be linked to good financial governance to ensure the money was not squandered, thereby possibly triggering a new debt spiral, the ministers said.
The G8 had, therefore, drafted a special “Action Plan for Good Financial Governance in Africa” in which it “strongly supports efforts to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of public financial management in Africa.” But it was also up to donor countries to be responsible in their lending policies, the group argued.
“We continue to support the development of a charter for responsible lending and seek to involve other interested parties, including the G20,” they said, referring to a cluster of emerging market nations.
Germany, the G8 host, had wanted the group to call China specifically into line on its policies on lending to Africa.
In its original draft for the action plan, Berlin had explicitly singled out China for criticism for lending money to Africa too freely without checking where it was going or if it could be repaid.—AFP