LONDON, Oct. 24 (Reuters) — Global talks to reduce trade barriers will fail unless all sides make concessions over farm policy, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, said in comments published on Monday.
He said the United States must make more cuts to subsidies, the European Union should open its markets and developing countries needed to reduce protectionism.
Failure to reach a deal at crucial talks in Hong Kong in December will harm millions of the world’s poorest people, Wolfowitz wrote in an article for Britain’s Financial Times newspaper.
"Unless serious concessions are made by all sides ... the Doha round of trade talks will fail and the people who will suffer the most are the world’s poor," he wrote.
Ministers from the 148 members of the World Trade Organization will meet in Hong Kong in mid-December to try to agree on the outline of a deal to reduce trade barriers.
Progress towards a pact has been mired in disagreements over agriculture, the most politically sensitive area of the WTO’s Doha Round. Wolfowitz said all countries must share the blame for the deadlock.
"Everyone has work to do," he wrote in the FT. "The US needs to do more to cuts its subsidies substantially.
"The EU needs to do more on market access to provide significant new trade opportunities (and) developing countries need to open their markets ... and lower their own agricultural protection."
Citing China’s economic boom as an example, Wolfowitz said the best way to tackle poverty was to embrace free trade.
"It is trade, not aid, that holds the key to creating jobs and raising incomes," he wrote. "It is trade that will allow poor countries to generate growth."
