More WTO fallout sentiment floods in

Two days after the World Trade Organization抯 global trade liberalization talks broke down in Geneva, trade organizations are still bemoaning the implications of failure.

On Wednesday, the International Chamber of Commerce and American Soybean Association chimed in.

ICC deeply regrets the failure of the key ministerial meeting in Geneva intended to arrive at agreed modalities for agricultural and manufacturing products as part of the long-drawn-out Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, the International Chamber said. In international trade, as in so many other policy areas in today's interdependent world economy, national governments apparently still have not fully realized the importance of international cooperation to tackle major challenges which transcend national boundaries and which they are increasingly unable to resolve by acting alone.

The chamber's chairman, Victor K. Fung, who is also chairman of the Hong Kong-based trading house Li & Fung, put it more bluntly.

There is no alternative to the rules-based multilateral trading system, which the Doha Round seeks to strengthen, Fung said. It is particularly important in this economic environment to continue to foster world prosperity and encourage the growth of developing economies who will be the biggest losers if the Doha Round were to fail. Governments must continue to talk.

ICC said successful talks could have represented a fillip to staggering economies around the world.

There is no question in our minds about the effects of the Doha Round on the global economy, said ICC Secretary General Guy Sebban. Without a Doha deal, virtually all countries will experience less economic growth than they would if a Doha deal was in place.

ICC said that interest groups in certain nations blocked a deal that was in common interest of the whole world.

With the world besieged by huge international challenges such as climate change, energy shortages, and an explosion of food prices, it is particularly disturbing that governments could not work together successfully to expand multilateral commercial ties that raise living standards, the chamber said. They will regret it in the medium term -- including those governments who have blocked progress under pressure from politically influential vested interest groups.

Meanwhile, the American Soybean Association said it supports U.S. negotiators in Geneva for rejecting proposals in the Doha trade negotiations that did not provide sufficient market access for U.S. producers. The latest proposal would have sharply reduced U.S. domestic support programs, while allowing developing countries to increase tariffs on key agricultural products above their current levels.

ASA is proud of our negotiating team, led by U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Susan Schwab, in walking away from a bad deal in Geneva, said ASA President John Hoffman, a soybean producer from Waterloo, Iowa. We had consistently stated that U.S. soybean producers would take a significant reduction in domestic farm programs if we got an equally significant increase in market access, particularly to developing countries.

The Special Safeguard Mechanism proposal insisted on by India and other countries could have created a huge loophole for developing countries to shield their domestic markets, even when price and import conditions are relatively normal. Added to the nearly 70 percent cut in U.S. trade-distorting support programs the administration was offering, this proposal would have been a ose-losedeal for U.S. soybean farmers. Allowing major U.S. customers like India and China to not only avoid tariff reductions on soybean and livestock products, but to actually increase them when imports increase or prices fall, would have undercut all efforts to liberalize trade in these negotiations.

Source: Ameircan Shipper