By Dominic Evans
LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - World Trade Organisation chief Mike Moore said on Tuesday that opening up the markets of wealthy nations to exports from the poorest countries was a crucial pillar of free trade.
But he told a British parliamentary watchdog he saw no immediate prospect that a Millenium Trade Round aimed at giving poor countries free access to world markets could begin soon.
"I cannot report at this moment that I see enough flexibility. Everybody wants the other to be flexible," he said.
"We are still too far apart on a number of issues."
The rich should allow quota-free and tariff-free access to goods from the 48 Least Developed countries (LDCs), whose exports amount to less than half a percent of world trade, Moore told the British parliament's International Development Committee.
A meeting of WTO ministers in Seattle in December, intended to launch a new round of global trade talks, failed to finalise a deal on removing tariffs for goods from the poorest states.
"The LDC (issue) is vital to retaining our credibility," Moore said.
"It is for the wealthy countries to show sensitivity. It would not be an enormous sacrifice (for them)," he said.
He detected hints of change in the position of some trade ministers since the Seattle failure, but the differences which remained were too wide to give grounds for optimism that a Millennium Trade Round could begin soon.
Moore said in his more optimistic moments he put the chances of launching a new trade round by the end of the year at between 15 and 20 percent.
NO AGREEMENT SOON
The United States, the European Union and Japan, the world's top three trading powers, have all said they are considering the deal and are already granting duty free access to essentially all goods from LDCs.
But leaders of these countries, most of them in Africa, say that products excluded are their major exports.
Moore said there had been progress in talks on the two most contentious areas, access for agricultural and textile goods, but he did not expect agreement within the next few weeks.
The need for greater generosity by rich nations over access to markets, technical assistance and helping developing countries implement WTO agreements was one of the obstacles to launching the new trade round, he said.
The WTO was seeking an additional $10 million to double its budget for helping the poor countries map out strategies on market access and implementation of trade rules, Moore added.
Developing countries have firmly resisted U.S. demands for talks on tying labour and environmental standards to the WTO's open trading rules, and reject European Union calls for negotiations on investment and competition rules.:
