Malaysia will support new round of trade talks

Malaysia will support new round of trade talks

Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia supports a new round of World Trade Organization negotiations, but doesn't want "extraneous matters" such as exploitation of child workers to creep in, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Friday.

"Our stand is that we are not against a new round of talks, (but) we want to determine what is the agenda," Mahathir told reporters after addressing a conference on terrorism.

"We don't want people to bring in extraneous matters like child labor and things like that. That is not trade. That can be dealt with in the (International Labor Organization). We want to talk about trade."

After a six-day conference in Qatar, trade ministers from the WTO's 142 member countries reached agreement Wednesday to start a new round of talks that would focus on lowering tariffs, a common competition policy and nondiscriminatory investment rules.

The agreement, reached after difficult negotiations, was widely hailed as a success after talks on a new round of world trade collapsed two years ago amid acrimony that richer nations were steamrolling developing nations' concerns.

Some developing nations are opposed to including issues such as labor standards and protection of the environment as conditions of trade liberalization, claiming such conditions are a form of protectionism that favors rich countries over poorer ones.

While consideration of issues such as labor standards were once insisted on by U.S. and European officials, they were largely left out during the Doha meetings.

Industry and Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said that Malaysia will be ready to negotiate four new trade issues in two years, including investment, the environment, competition policies, and government procurement, the Bernama national news agency reported.