[South Africa] Developed nations must not pay for Doha success - Mbeki

from The Dispatch

THE Doha round of talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) must succeed, but not at the expense of developed nations, President Thabo Mbeki said yesterday.

"It is in the interest of everybody in the world, including the poor, that the developed countries should continue to develop; they should continue to add to the volume of wealth that there is within human society."

He was briefing the media at the conclusion of the Progressive Governance Summit held over the weekend at a game lodge near Pretoria.

Mbeki held a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, New Zealand's Helen Clark, South Korean President Roh Noo-Hyun, Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson, Ethiopia's Meles Zenawi, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The conference was also attended by other world leaders including WTO director-general Pascal Lamy and European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson.

The successful conclusion of the WTO talks before the end of the year was one of the major talking points.

Blair said: "2006 is the year the world decides whether it is going to be ambitious on world trade, which has huge implications for world poverty, or it is not.

"Failure of the world trade round would be a devastating blow to the poorest countries of the world, to countries that are developing and also to countries such as our own.

Persson warned that the possible failure of the talks would be devastating to multilateral relations.

"If we do not reach an agreement at the WTO framework for the future, trade multilateralism is questioned. Bilateral agreements would regulate world trade and that would be disastrous, especially to smaller countries," he said.

However, Clark reckoned that there was a willingness from the three major parties at the talks - the US, EU and Group of 20 countries - to move forward.

She added that the US had to move on domestic support reduction, the EU on agricultural market access and the G20 on non-agriculture market access.