U.S., China See Doha Round Completed This Year, USDA Chief Says

By Richard Dobson

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and China are confident that the seven-year Doha round of global trade talks can be completed by the end of this year, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said.

“Both China and the U.S. remain confident that a successful round can be completed here in the next few weeks,” Schafer told reporters today in Shanghai. Schafer attended the Strategic Economic Dialogue between the U.S. and China in Beijing that ended yesterday.

World Trade Organization negotiators have been trying to reach an agreement since 2001 to cut agriculture subsidies and tariffs on industrial goods. WTO Director General Pascal Lamy has said he is considering calling a ministerial meeting of the group in the second week of December to complete the talks.

“The U.S. is prepared to make the appropriate commitments on subsidies for the Doha round, but those commitments must come with increased market access for our products in other countries around the world,” Schafer said.

China’s Commerce Minister Chen Deming said on Dec. 4 that an agreement had been reached with the U.S. to push forward on completion of the Doha trade round by the end of December, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Chen said he hoped the U.S. would also show flexibility and noted that while the U.S. was concerned with agriculture and non- agricultural market access issues, China hoped for more focus on concerns of developing countries, Xinhua reported.

Trade Barriers

The last attempt to get an outline of a new global trade agreement in July broke down as the U.S. faced off against India and China over their demands that developing nations be allowed to erect new barriers to agricultural imports.

“I seriously doubt it can be completed,” said Andy Xie, founder of Rosetta Stone Advisors in Shanghai and formerly Morgan Stanley’s chief Asia economist. “I don’t think the developed economies can make enough compromises on agriculture subsidies for the emerging economies to get on side.”

Lamy said Nov. 29 he would make a decision within a week on whether to call a three-day meeting between Dec. 10 and Dec. 19.

At the completion of the Strategic Economic Dialogue yesterday, China and the U.S. pledged $20 billion to fund trade and agreed to deepen financial ties, stepping up efforts to counter the credit crisis in their final economic talks before President-elect Barack Obama takes office Jan. 20.

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Dobson in Shanghai at Rdobson4@bloomberg.net