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WTO chief sees good chance for trade round

World Trade Organisation Director-General Mike Moore said on Friday he saw "a very good chance" that a key conference in Doha next week would launch a global round of negotiations on lowering trade barriers.

Moore was speaking at a news conference seven days before trade ministers from the WTO's 142 member states and 29 others bidding to join gather in the Qatari capital for five days of talks on the future of the trade body.

"I think there is a very good chance," the former New Zealand prime minister said when asked for his assessment of the chances of agreement on a round -- a top priority for big powers like the European Union and the United States."

Leading world financial figures, like US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, and economists argue that the launch of a round now would give a boost to the ailing global economy, especially after the September 11 attacks in the United States.

This line has been followed by the major powers and some developing countries like Singapore, Argentina, Mexico and Costa Rica, and backed by Moore himself.

But he tempered his optimism with a warning that there were still serious problems to be resolved -- mainly between developing countries which make up nearly three quarters of the WTO membership and the world's leading trading powers.

One "supercharged" issue was the demand from many poorer countries -- backed by a world-wide campaign by non-governmental organisations -- for a declaration clarifying WTO rules on patents and the need for cheap medicines.

They want this to make clear the current WTO intellectual property agreement, or TRIPS, which binds signatories to observe patent laws, can be set aside in a health crisis to enable countries to buy or manufacture copies of patent drugs.

EASING RULES

But this is fiercely opposed by the United States, Switzerland, Japan and some countries in the 15-member European Union -- all home to leading pharmaceutical companies which say any easing of the rules would open the way to piracy and an end to costly research on new drugs.

Some ambassadors from poorer countries in Geneva say the issue could be a deal-breaker in Doha.

Other problem issues pointed to by Moore were targets a round agenda might set on reducing domestic and export subsidies to farmers -- highly sensitive issues in the EU and Japan -- and on how to incorporate environmental concerns into WTO rules.

A range of developing and richer farm produce-exporting countries, including Australia and Thailand, are demanding fixed targets for the total elimination of domestic agricultural support as practiced in the EU and Japan.

The exporting nations say subsidies distort world prices for foodstuffs and prevent their produce from being competitive in the vast markets of Europe and the United States against often heavily-subsidised local farm goods.

Many diplomats say the EU, whose Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy has been a high-profile campaigner for a wide-ranging round, looks set to have to give way on a range of issues to get a negotiation approved in Doha.

Brussels also wanted talks on setting rules for foreign investment and competition policies under the WTO, but a draft text for the ministers offers only "study" of these issues for two years before any decision on negotiations is taken.

Moore told the news conference the draft, prepared by WTO General Council chairman and Hong Kong ambassador Stuart Harbinson after months of debate among delegations in Geneva, was a "good basis for discussion" at the conference.

The text, setting out ideas on a Work Programme for the WTO over the next two years, has also been bitterly criticised by developing countries which say it leans too much towards the agenda of the big powers.

African countries in particular say it fails to meet their concerns about increasing marginalisation, debt and technology transfer to help them out of poverty. But Moore implicitly rejected that line, saying it offered much to the poor.

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