G7 calls WTO deal 'imperative' - Yahoo! News

G7 calls WTO deal 'imperative' - Yahoo! News: " G7 calls WTO deal 'imperative' " by Jitendra Joshi Sat Apr 14, 3:50 AM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The world's seven richest nations said Friday a WTO deal to tear down global trade barriers was "imperative," following a measure of progress achieved by leading players at talks in India. "We believe that a successful conclusion of the Doha Development round is imperative," Group of Seven finance ministers said in a statement, referring to the World Trade Organization's stalled effort to liberalize commerce. "We are committed to resisting protectionist sentiment. Substantially lowering tariffs and other barriers is essential to spur new growth in global trade and reduce poverty," the G7 ministers said after their latest talks. "We welcome recent steps to intensify engagement, recognizing that substantive movement towards a comprehensive final outcome requires all parties to make additional efforts." US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged fellow finance ministers "to encourage their trade ministers to achieve an ambitious (Doha) deal because of the round's potential to stimulate growth and economic development." The European Union's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, said after the G7 talks: "The possible failure of the Doha round is an important risk. "All the major players will do their best to avoid failure," he said. The outright collapse of the Doha round would be "bad news" for the world economy, Almunia added, warning of the dangers of "further protectionist threats" arising. The G7 nations and other members of the International Monetary Fund were due to meet WTO director general Pascal Lamy at the IMF's annual spring meeting here Saturday. Ahead of the meeting, IMF managing-director Rodrigo Rato urged all the major WTO players "to make the final effort to give the world a very important push in the right direction." For a deal to happen, Rato said Thursday, there is a "special responsibility for leadership from certainly the US, Europe and Japan, but also for the large emerging economies." Late Thursday after two days of talks in New Delhi, trade ministers from the United States, the EU, India, Brazil, Australia and Japan expressed cautious optimism about clinching a WTO breakthrough this year. The ministers said they believed "that by intensifying our work, we can reach convergence and thus contribute to concluding the round by the end of 2007." The Delhi meeting marked the first time the leading trade powers had assembled for talks since the Doha discussions were suspended last July amid US and European resistance to deeper cuts to their farm subsidies. "We must work and move together -- and we must do so soon -- to realise the full potential of the Doha round," US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said, calling on India to take the lead in slashing its onerous industrial tariffs. "The nature of India's engagement will determine that of many other developing countries," she told a business audience in New Delhi Friday. Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, also addressing the forum, said the challenge for the big players was to see how "creative we can be to work around the differences to ensure it's a win-win situation for all." The WTO round, launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital, has repeatedly missed deadlines as wealthy and developing nations have struggled to bridge yawning differences on opening up trade in agricultural, industrial goods and services. Also on the trade front, the G7 ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States called for enhanced cooperation to protect intellectual property rights and combat counterfeiting. Paulson said that progress on liberalizing financial services was an "integral part" of the Doha round, "so finance ministries need to work together to reinvigorate the financial services negotiations."