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New WTO round vital for economic growth: US

The United States urged members of the World Trade Organisation on Saturday to strive for agreement to launch new world trade talks and give the global economy a much-needed boost after the September 11 attacks.

''It is particularly important that the message from Doha be that our nations are committed to opening markets, and not closing them,'' US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told a WTO ministerial conference in Qatar.

With the world economy sliding towards recession after the suicide attacks on US cities, he said a deal to start a new trade round would boost ''financial market confidence and economic recovery in the short run, and economic growth and vitality over time''.

The WTO's last attempt to launch world trade talks ended in failure in Seattle in December 1999 when countries could not agree on an agenda for the negotiations.

Key developing countries say they are not convinced of the need for a new trade round, saying provisions of the last one have not yet been implemented.

Disagreements over many of the same issues -- such as farm export subsidies and the EU's desire for negotiations on national competition policies and foreign investment rules -- remain major obstacles at the Doha meeting.

A new issue has also emerged over the right of developing countries to have access to cheap supplies of drugs to treat diseases likes HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Brazil and other developing nations want trade ministers to issue a separate declaration stating that nothing in WTO intellectual property rules would prevent countries from taking steps to protect public health, such as issuing licenses to produce cheap copies of patented drugs.

But the United States says the language advocated by Brazil would create a huge loophole in the rules -- known as trips in WTO jargon -- and threaten the profit motive for companies to develop new medicines.

''We will try our best to achieve a constructive, separate declaration in this area,'' Zoellick said. ''We cannot agree with a declaration, however, that eviscerates the TRIPS rules through an exception for vague 'public health objectives'.''

Zoellick said the United States would also work to address the concerns of developing countries that they have not received as much benefit, particularly on market access, from the 1994 Uruguay round pact as they were led to expect.

''We can agree to a sizeable list of implementation items as we launch the negotiating agenda. And we are willing to work with others on the remaining concerns,'' Zoellick said.

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