A global trade accord moved nearer to agreement in Bali after the United States and India sought to bridge differences over food security, people familiar with the negotiations said. World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo will submit a draft text of a trade accord for the 159-member group to consider today, according to a Bloomberg BNA report. The WTO posted a draft on its website today that would create an interim mechanism on food security, which has been the main hurdle to a deal.
Success in reaching an agreement that supporters say could add about $1 trillion to the world economy may help extend talks on the Doha trade negotiations that have dragged on for 12 years. Failure in Bali would diminish confidence in the WTO, its spokesman, Keith Rockwell, said yesterday. India had sought a solution to its demands to exempt food security plans from being counted under subsidy spending caps, while the United States was concerned surplus from India’s food program may get dumped onto world markets.
After the Bali discussions conclude, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and ministers from some Asia-Pacific countries will head to Singapore for talks on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord. The difficult talks in Bali may put the focus back on regional trade deals, said Alan Bollard, executive director of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping, whose leaders also met in Bali this year. “The WTO negotiations have got so complex with 159 different countries involved that we are really wondering whether there is a future for these very big complete comprehensive agreements like this,” Bollard told Bloomberg TV Indonesia in an interview in Bali yesterday.
