DAVOS, Switzerland — Trade ministers and senior officials from 21 countries including the U.S. the European Union, Japan, and China agreed Saturday to inject a sense of urgency in their attempts to kick start the stalled Doha round of global trade talks.
Ministers underlined their readiness to engage towards “a realistic” blueprint by July on the remaining unresolved issues in the talks — agriculture, industrial goods and services — to try to conclude the round, which was launched in 2001 , Swiss economy minister Johann N. Schneider-Amman said.
The Swiss official, who chaired the two days of talks held on the sidelines of the 2015 World Economic Forum, said ministers held “good and open discussions”
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This marks the first time since the talks dramatically collapsed in summer 2008 that a concerted political push has been given to jump-start them. The talks, sponsored by the World Trade Organization, broke down mainly because of differences between the US and EU and emerging powers such as China and India.
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“We were encouraged by the consensus on the need for a more honest and realistic discussion on the Doha talks in Geneva,” Michael Punke, deputy U.S. Trade Representative, who attended the meeting along with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, told WWD.
Cecilia Malstrom, EU trade commissioner, said, ” it was a good meeting, but there’s still a lot to be done to try and define a road map to move” ahead.
The objective is to come up with a blueprint by July on how to slash tariffs and other barriers to trade on industrial goods, agriculture and services.
Tim Groser, New Zealand’s trade minister, said, “There is a high level of understanding we need to re-calibrate” the level of ambition, but noted it should not be meaningless because some negotiations on regional agreements are producing real substance.
Groser said ministers also strongly backed WTO chief Roberto Azevedo’s attempts to intensify discussions. “He can’t do it by himself, he needs major developed and developing countries to get behind him,” said Groser.
Azevedo, who attended the talks, said negotiators need to be “creative and open-minded.”
“We decided we needed to change the conversation,” Azevedo said, adding the world economy is in need of good news.
Schneider-Amman said what matters is “to achieve results ” by the WTO trade ministerial conference to be held in Nairobi in December.