Progress in Bali talks on global trade deal

Talks on a global trade deal were adjourned overnight in Bali yesterday after Cuba raised objections, supported by Nicaragua and Bolivia.

India and the US earlier resolved differences over how to push forward with negotiations on food security, clearing the way for the first global trade deal in almost two decades. Agreement would be a significant victory for the World Trade Organisation as a venue to draft the global rules of commerce.

"This is a landmark," Anand Sharma, the Indian commerce minister, told the Financial Times in an interview. "Today we have taken a major step to correct the historical distortions," he said, referring to the fact that the WTO now had much greater representation from developing countries than was the case during the Uruguay Round.

'Historic event'
"It looks as if tonight we have saved the WTO," said Karel DeGucht, the EU's trade commissioner. "That would be a historic event."

The Bali deal would represent the first concrete progress in the so-called Doha Round of negotiations since they were launched in the Qatari capital in November 2001. It would also mark the first truly multilateral deal negotiated within the WTO since it was set up in 1995.

However it includes only a small portion of the agenda that was chosen two years ago by ministers as deliverable. Jagdish Bhagwati, a trade economist, has called the Bali agenda “Doha lite and decaffeinated”.

Senior trade officials said they expected to overcome objections to elements of the accord raised by Cuba and Venezuela. – (Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2013)