Wall Street Journal | By MATTHEW NEWMAN and GEOFF WINESTOCK, Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
GENEVA -- Top officials at the World Trade Organization believe time is running out for a deal on a new round of talks on global trade.
At a meeting Monday, WTO Director General Mike Moore will urge officials from 142 member countries to stop posturing and start negotiating if they want to agree on an agenda for trade liberalization at a meeting of ministers that starts in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Nov. 9.
Mr. Moore will present a report warning that rich and poor countries still cannot agree what subjects should be included in the years-long round of negotiations that Doha is supposed to launch.
"Gaps among positions on key issues remain wide," the report says.
Rich countries -- primarily the European Union -- want to add new negotiating areas they hope will lead to fair treatment for their companies under laws that govern investment and competition, while poor countries want increased access to markets for their agricultural exports and reductions in richer countries' farm subsidies. Developing countries also want the talks to include so-called antidumping rules, which industrial nations can use to keep out cheaply produced goods -- a topic the U.S. wants to keep off the agenda.
Developing countries also want their richer counterparts to accelerate market-opening efforts already agreed to under previous accords -- especially those affecting textiles -- and to be more lenient in implementing existing WTO agreements aimed at protecting intellectual property rights concerning, for example, software and music piracy, which is widespread in the developing world.
Some officials are already preparing for the possibility that it might not be possible to launch a new round in Doha. Stuart Harbinson, chairman of the WTO's general council, said it is not even useful to talk of a new round.
"This is a label that conjures up demons in people's minds," Mr. Harbinson said.
The demons in question were those that haunted Seattle two years ago, when WTO efforts to kick-start a new round ended in humiliation and violent clashes between police and antiglobalization protesters. Poor countries made it clear to the rest of the WTO at Seattle that the idea of a broad set of negotiations covering new areas such as core labor standards and the environment are off limits until more pressing needs nearer to home are tackled.
India, for instance, is openly hostile to a new round, arguing that it hasn't seen the benefits of previous WTO agreements to cut agriculture subsidies and gradually remove tariffs on its crucial textile exports.
One bright spot is what appears to be broad agreement between the EU and the U.S. on the agenda for the trade talks.
Mr. Harbinson is at pains to deny that if members cannot agree on a new agenda at Doha then the talks will have collapsed in disarray.
"As long as WTO members have the feeling that the organization is moving forward in a way that's comfortable for all -- that's key for me," he said. "To say that not having a round at Doha is considered a failure is a bit too stark."
But violent protests last weekend in Genoa, Italy, at the summit of the Group of Eight industrial counties, and at a recent EU summit in Sweden are concrete evidence of the sensitive role trade is playing in politics.
Still, protesters will have trouble reaching the meeting in Qatar, a Persian Gulf state where visas will only be issued to delegates who have been vetted by the WTO.
Some rich countries now say they want a new round of talks to tackle the protesters' concerns about the impact of free trade on the environment and labor, and they know they can ill afford to lose any momentum behind increased trade liberalization as the global economy slows.
This week's meeting is described by delegates as a "reality check." Mr. Harbinson said it is a wake-up call. "Hopefully there will be an indication from what they say that it's necessary to break the mold of the present negotiations and move on to the next phase. I hope they agree to a more urgent mode."
Write to Matthew Newman at matthew.newman@dowjones.com and Geoff Winestock at geoff.winestock@wsj.comWall Street Journal:
