US seeks market access from emerging economies

The US today asked India and other emerging economies like Brazil, China and South Africa to take more responsibilities in Doha trade talks by agreeing to give market access to products of the industrialised world.

Lauding India’s initiative to revive the stalled WTO negotiations, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said, "…about 60 per cent of the world's growth is going to come from the newly emerging advanced developing countries and the ASEAN region...India, China, Brazil and South Africa have added responsibility to make tough decisions in order to (make) Doha successful..."

Referring to the draft proposals of December 2008 of the negotiating groups on agriculture and non-agriculture market access (industrial goods), Kirk said there were gaps to be filled.

He insisted that momentum to the trade talks could now come only if discussions were held on bilateral basis and within a limited number of players since it would be a complex process to find an agreement among 153 countries.

However, the US did not find any support among the developing nations on limiting the consultations among the key players.

Ministers from India, Brazil, Egypt and China said transparency and inclusiveness of negotiations must be maintained. They said the bilateral engagements can not replace multilateral process.