Doha deal needed for stronger world trade

The global trading system has survived the economic crisis well on the whole, but a Doha Round agreement is needed to protect it from future shocks, the head of the World Trade Organisation said on Monday.

Addressing a symposium on the sidelines of a WTO ministerial meeting in Geneva, Director-General Pascal Lamy urged his organisation's 153 members to speed up their negotiations in the Doha Round, already in its ninth year.

"Given the present pace, if they want to get there in '10, we will need an acceleration," Lamy said. "How we organise this acceleration is probably Number 1 on the to-do list after the ministerial conference."

Doha accord negotiations are not formally on the agenda of the conference that starts on Monday afternoon, because Lamy and government officials believe the talks are not ready for a high-end push towards an agreement.

But the state of the Round -- launched in November 2001 to open markets and help developing countries grow through more trade -- loomed large over the Geneva gathering.

Developing countries issued a declaration saying that rich nations needed to show leadership to advance the negotiations, and a group of food-exporting nations said it was "disappointed with the limited progress in resolving or narrowing differences" in recent months.

"All members need to engage substantively in a transparent and inclusive manner if we are to bridge the gaps and successfully conclude the Round in 2010," said the Cairns Group, a coalition including Australia, Indonesia, Argentina and Peru.

Developing countries also called on Sunday for an agreement that would focus on removing distortions in trade in food that hurt farmers in poor countries, for instance by cutting farm subsidies paid by rich countries