BRITISH rock star Chris Martin leapt on to the Washington stage, driving screaming fans wild as he belted out one hit after another.
As dazzling lights and glitter burst around the charismatic Coldplay frontman, captivated fans could have been forgiven for missing the ''Make Trade Fair'' logo inscribed on the singer's piano.
But if the hundreds of signatures collected by Oxfam volunteers during the show were any measure, the message wasn't lost.
Though using celebrities to front charitable campaigns is not new -- the 1985 Live Aid concerts for Ethiopian famine victims made it cool to care -- putting famous faces to work on dry-as-dust trade issues is a fresh idea.
Movie stars Brad Pitt and Heath Ledger are among those expressing an interest in trade and the developing world. And with global trade talks going down to the wire before a year-end deadline for a deal, the big names may multiply. ''Having Chris Martin and Coldplay be frontmen for Make Trade Fair has elevated the trade debate (and) piqued people's interest. Politicians realise the world is watching,'' Oxfam spokeswoman Lyndsay Cruz says.
The current Doha round of trade talks between nearly 150 member countries of the World Trade Organisation has limped along for 4 1/2 years. So far, little progress has been made on a pact to lift millions out of poverty and boost the world economy by slashing subsidies and tariffs that hobble international trade.
But now there is new urgency: in mid-2007, US President George W. Bush is due to lose his power to approve trade deals with minimal congressional involvement, which would make any eventual deal harder to ratify.
So the world's trade ministers are hastily scheduling extra meetings and urging their peers to take action. Meanwhile, development agencies are pressing celebrities into service.
Lobbyists in Washington have been abuzz with talk that Irish rocker Bono -- fresh from a successful campaign to urge world leaders to cut developing world debt -- would take on the WTO, adding his voice to the many agencies pushing rich nations to make more concessions and cut a deal.
But not everyone is convinced that bringing famous faces into the debate is the best way to get fast results for the world's poorest countries.
''These stars are extremely well-intentioned and think charities must have exactly the right attitudes -- but the charities are exploiting them,'' says Jagdish Bhagwati, professor of economics and law at Colombia University and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
''When they say that subsidies should be removed, they do not distinguish between those which don't distort trade (and those which do). So they are muddying up the debate,'' he adds.Reuters
