Goff calls on big powers to save trade talks

Phil Goff

Key players in the World Trade Organisation must show they have the political will to save the latest round of trade liberalisation talks from collapse, Trade Minister Phil Goff said today.

Mr Goff has just returned from a ministerial meeting in Geneva which made little progress in the bid to reach agreement on moving the WTO negotiations ahead.

He said it would be a tragedy if the Doha round of talks was not completed.

"The real question is whether the key players -- the United States, the European Union and the large developing countries Brazil and India -- have the political flexibility and the political will to make the compromises that will be necessary," Mr Goff said on TV One's Breakfast programme.

WTO chief Pascal Lamy is holding a series of 11th-hour consultations to save the round, and said yesterday the five-year-old negotiations had entered "the red part of the red zone".

Experts are reported to believe that without a breakthrough this month the Doha round may have to be shelved for several years, potentially killing an initiative aimed at boosting world economic growth and lifting millions from poverty.

The United States and the European Union are set against each other on issues ranging from agriculture to industrial tariffs and service-sector liberalisation.

New Zealand stands to make big gains from easier access to other countries for agricultural products, but tariffs, subsidies and trade barriers in that sector are among the most difficult issues the WTO is facing.

- NZPA