Blair wants leaders' powwow to unlock trade talks

British Prime Minister Tony Blair wants to hold a heads-of-government meeting to unlock the world trade talks to avert a "disastrous" failure.

But Blair, who discussed the issue with Prime Minister Helen Clark in Auckland last week, says first they will need to see how discussions at the World Trade Organisation's Geneva headquarters progress.

The WTO has set an April 30 deadline to reach agreement on "full modalities" - a comprehensive framework deal including numbers for tariff and subsidy cuts on agriculture and non-agricultural market access - but the chances of doing so are decreasing by the day.

"At the moment, I think there is a real danger of the world trade talks going down," Blair told the Herald.

The World Bank predicts an ambitious Doha Development Agreement would reduce poverty and boost global welfare by US$300 billion ($487.3 billion) by 2015.

"You've got the poorest countries in the world sitting there waiting for us to deliver on what we promised - access to our markets," Blair said.

"If we turn our back on that, I think the consequences will be serious."

On Saturday, three major WTO players - the European Union, the United States and Brazil - agreed to draw up detailed forecasts of what would happen if rich countries agreed to demands from poorer nations to lower trade barriers and subsidies.

But the progress is at snail's pace.

US Trade Representative Rob Portman said the "simulations" would give countries an idea of how they would be affected by changed regulations. But Brazil's Celso Amorin said it was clear neither rich nor poor countries would make the first move.

Blair said there would be no point in calling a heads-of-government meeting unless it could get results.

He said so-called "economic patriotism" was shortsighted. "We will get a lot further if people recognise the benefits of free trade."