Asian countries, including emerging trade giant China, will go to the WTO meeting next month prepared to back a realistic agenda, but will be wary of "extraneous matters" brought up by western countries, analysts and officials said.
There are already enough items to kick off a new round of global trade talks such as implementation issues, agriculture, services and industrial tariffs, said officials from the region, consisting largely of developing nations.
The fallout on the global economy of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US has made a new round more urgent, Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok-tong said, urging countries to rise above the technical issues and gather the political will get the process going.
Despite efforts to narrow differences, battle lines remain drawn on the introduction of items considered as unrelated to trade like labor standards and protection of the environment.
These, along with differences on agriculture, competition policy and investment rules, could hijack the Nov. 9-to-13 meeting of 142 WTO ministers in the Qatari capital of Doha, officials said.
India and Malaysia have already indicated they will resist attempts by developed nations to inject unrelated issues into the agenda.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said it was possible some countries "will bring extraneous matters, things that are not related to trade but which will have a bad effect on poorer countries."
Malaysia will support a new round "if the agenda suits us," said Mahathir, a fierce critic of unfettered liberalization.
Outspoken Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said Kuala Lumpur would like to see a provision allowing countries to "opt out" of contentious issues.
"If the flexibility of an opt-out can be part of the process towards Doha, then I can see an agenda coming into shape," she said on the sidelines of the recent Asia-Pacific leaders' summit in Shanghai.
"Without that, I don't see any change no matter how eager they are to launch a new round because as long as one country disagrees, it cannot kick off," she said.
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