WTO director general Supachai Panitchpakdi warned economic leaders Sunday that missing an deadline at the end of next year for freeing up world trade would be "damaging" for the global economy.
Trade negotiators missed a deadline in March to strike a deal on the critical area of agricultural trade, raising some questions about the timing of an overall agreement.
"There is no reason to begin doubting the possibility of meeting the target date of end-2004 for finishing the negotiations," Supachai told policymakers here of the 184-nation World Bank and IMF.
"No reason, that is, unless governments decide that their political will to complete the exercise is no longer there," he said.
"And that, surely, would send a very damaging signal around the world -- damaging to the prospects for economic recovery, and damaging too for the process of multilateral cooperation in general."
Ministers from WTO member states agreed at a conference in Doha in November 2001 to launch the current round of trade negotiations. They set a three-year deadline for completion. The agenda included a call for phasing agricultural export subsidies, a bone of contention for developing countries, which say they are being priced out of world markets by rich nations.
"Given the level of ambition of the Doha Round, it is inevitable that we have hit some bumps along the road," Supachai said.
Political will and a convergence of positions are critical for the success of the WTO, he said.
"Starting to roll back levels of ambition for the trade negotiations is no answer," Supachai said.
"It would quickly spiral downwards, as more and more trade-offs are closed out, condemning the negotiations to insignificance in the eyes of developing countries and of business worldwide," Supachai said.
"Nowhere is that more true than in the negotiations on agriculture, a sector that is of vital economic significance to a large number of WTO members. Nothing would be served by producing a minimalist approach."
Supachai said politicians must stop seeing agriculture as a matter of purely domestic concern and realize its importance for poverty reduction and international security.
"Rural poverty is the most endemic and corrosive form of poverty in the world. Continuing high levels of restriction and distortion to agricultural trade are a large part of the problem. They must be brought down."
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