JP/3/WTO

JP/3/WTO

Doha deal on trade shapes up but hurdles remain

Alan Wheatley and Rawhi Abeidoh
Reuters
Doha

The United States said on Monday the outline of a deal to
launch a new round of world trade talks was taking shape, but
India said that rich-country barriers to textile imports could
wreck it.

The clash of views reflected the quickening pace of bargaining
on the penultimate day of a five-day World Trade Organization
(WTO) meeting whose outcome is deemed crucial to boost confidence
in the ailing global economy.

"Less than a good deal is better than no deal at all. No deal
would give a very bad sign at the time when the global economy is
facing recession," said Moroccan delegate Nacer Benjelloun-
Touimi.

Ministers from the 142-member WTO are meeting in the Qatari
capital on the shores of the Gulf amid tight security following
the attacks on the United States on Sept.11.

Armed soldiers guarded the hotel conference center and U.S.
marines stood ready on ships offshore.

Negotiators reported specific progress to settle a row over
drug patents that has pitted wealthy countries' desire to protect
intellectual property rights against poor nations' need for cheap
medicine to combat diseases like AIDS.

"The text needs to be put to a higher level now. If it's
deemed to be satisfactory -- and there are indications that it
may well be -- then that might well open the way for a
breakthrough in that area," European Union spokesman Anthony
Gooch told a news conference.

Disputes between the world's haves and have-nots have peppered
every discussion at the meeting. But a U.S. official expressed
guarded confidence that a deal was within grasp.

"We see the pieces starting to fall into place but there is
still a ways to go," the official told reporters.

India, however, warned that a refusal by rich countries to
open their markets for developing-country textile imports could
block agreement on a new round of trade talks.

"There's still a deadlock and it could be a deal-breaker,"
Indian Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran said.

After a weekend that saw China, the world's most populous
nation, and rival Taiwan join the global trading club, officials
said frantic drafting was under way to find acceptable language
on issues from farm subsidies to environmental rules.

China is accepted into WTO on Saturday, while Taiwan is on
Sunday.

The questions are arcane but the outcome of a new trade round,
which would take several years to complete, will affect the price
and availability of goods in shops around the world.

Millions of workers could lose their jobs, and millions of
others find work, as industries rise and fall because of market-
opening moves on the table in Doha.

The issue of patents -- covered by the WTO's Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS in the jargon
-- has bitterly divided developed and developing countries.

WTO officials see resolving it as essential to correcting the
image that freer trade favors the rich over the poor.

Developing countries, led by Brazil and India, are seeking a
waiver on public health grounds of rules that guarantee 20-year
patents on medicines.

They say they cannot afford costly Western drugs to treat
scourges such as malaria that affect millions and must be able to
make or import cheap generic versions without fear of litigation
from drug companies or the WTO.

Led by the United States, industrialized countries are
reluctant to provide a waiver, fearing its impact on other
patents and a threat to the US$300 billion-a-year drugs industry.

One U.S. official reported a "better sense of convergence" on
the crucial issue but a European envoy said he doubted there
would be a deal until the last minute. "We're not out of the
woods yet," he said.

Aside from the drugs issue, developing countries are wary of
European proposals to link trade to strict environmental rules,
seeing them as back door protectionism. They insist that rich
states must honor past market-opening pledges before they can
consider taking on onerous new obligations.

Western governments have made much greater efforts than in the
past to reach out to developing countries, which make up 80
percent of the WTO's membership, arguing that freer world trade
is a recipe for greater wealth that lifts all with it.

"Trade liberalization is an essential ingredient in developing
countries' efforts to achieve higher economic growth and reduce
poverty," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier said.