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UPDATED: 15:25, July 13, 2005
WTO's Dalian meeting key to unlocking trade talks: Oxfam



World Trade Organization (WTO) members must seize the chance to unlock stalled trade negotiations at a meeting beginning Thursday in Dalian, China, international organization Oxfam said in Wellington Wednesday.

It said the WTO Mini-Ministerial in Dalian, China (July 12-13) is particularly crucial given the lack of progress in Geneva and last week's failure of the G8 to make firm commitments on trade reforms designed specifically to help poor countries.

Oxfam is a development, relief, and campaigning organization that works with others to find lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world.

It said with less than six months to go before the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong, negotiators of WTO trade talks are miles from consensus and have failed even to produce draft texts for discussion.

In Scotland last week G8 leaders reaffirmed their commitment to completing the Doha round, but they failed to set an end date for export subsidies or to agree any other concrete targets.

"The G8 missed the opportunity to give stalled world trade talks the boost they badly need," said Oxfam.

"Rich countries must stop asking 'what can I get from this' and start asking 'how can we make progress that helps everyone?'"

Negotiators of WTO trade talks have been haggling over agreements on most of the issues on the table, including on food aid, cotton, a formula for tariff cuts and level of reduction of agricultural subsidies.

Oxfam noted that to ensure success in Hong Kong at the end of the year, when members are meant to agree a final deal on new rules,negotiators need to agree now on draft texts and begin to fill in the details.

"If things are left until the Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, the agenda will be impossibly overloaded and talks will most likely collapse," said Oxfam.

Source: Xinhua


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