An agreement on a package of measures to help the poor is seen as key to saving the WTO talks from collapse, but the idea is facing criticism for failing to provide what developing countries really need.
As the US, the EU and developing heavyweights such as Brazil and India joust over market-opening concessions, the issue of a special package for the poorest nations is climbing up the agenda of the WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said he wanted to see a "top-up development package" for the world's poorest nations on the table at the six-day meeting which opened yesterday.
US Trade Representative Rob Portman also said he favored the idea, adding that the conference should try to produce "an effective LDC development package."
Some 32 of the WTO's 149 members are formally classed as "least developed countries" (LDCs).
A central plank of the WTO's Doha Round of negotiations, launched in 2001, is to tear down barriers to trade and use commerce to help boost the economies of developing countries, which are supposed to benefit from what is known in WTO jargon as "special and differential treatment."
But the talks have stalled because of a range of disputes, many of them centered on agriculture.
Rich countries are accused of offering too few market-opening concessions and of failing to go far enough to cut support for their farmers, which is seen as depressing world markets and undercutting producers in developing countries.
WTO members have been trying to avoid a replay of the bitter battles, particularly over farm trade, that fuelled the collapse of their last conference in 2003.
Officials say a deal for the LDCs could be modelled on the EU's Everything But Arms initiative, which offers duty- and quota-free access to a range of goods -- apart from weapons -- from the poorest nations.
The US has a similar program focusing on Africa.
"These programs are attractive to a certain extent," said Musonda Mwansa, a senior trade advisor from Zambia, an LDC.
"But they have a huge downside" because they are not tied in to any kind of global trade deal and are "entirely up to the discretion" of the rich who can exclude certain key sectors, Mwansa said.
On Monday, US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said the US would have to "pay attention" to the interests of sugar, dairy and peanut producers in any package.
Other sensitive sectors include textiles, where LDC member Bangladesh, among others, has been eyeing new opportunities.
"The LDCs are not selfish about their own interests" and want the trade talks to yield a wider deal that will benefit a broader range of poor nations, Mwansa said.
Aftab Alam, of the advocacy group ActionAid, said he also had doubts, suggesting that a specific deal only for the poorest would miss the essential message of the Doha Round, which aims to deliver a wide-ranging accord.
"We need an overall development package, integrated into the multilateral trading system," Alam said.
"If there is no integrated deal in Hong Kong, it is better that poor countries reject any kind of itemized package," he said.
Another side to a potential package could be "aid for trade" -- support from rich countries to help poor nations take advantage of trading opportunities.
"Aid for trade is a supplement to an ambitious result in the Doha round," Portman said, although the US official noted market opening is also crucial.
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