USTR Kirk Says a New Path for Trade Talks May Be Needed

14 May 2009 By Merle David Kellerhals Jr. Staff Writer

Washington — U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk says the Obama administration is committed to efforts to expand global trade, but the World Trade Organization may need to consider a new path to conclude long-stalled negotiations.

“We should all be willing to consider changes to the process that could put the negotiations on a more direct path to success,” Kirk said at a May 13 press briefing at WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The current, stalled round of negotiations is called the Doha Development Round.

“President Obama and I are both committed to a successful conclusion to the Doha Development Round. We see it not only as a critical component of what the president believes should be an overall, worldwide response to the current economic crisis, but it’s also critical to the sustenance of many of our least-developed countries.”

The Doha round was launched in November 2001 in the Qatari capital, Doha. Its objective is to lower trade barriers around the world, which would increase trade globally. As of 2008, talks had stalled over a divide on major issues, such as agriculture, industrial tariffs and non-tariff barriers, services and trade remedies.

“With respect to the good substantive work that has been done, obviously something needs to happen differently to get us to a successful conclusion,” Kirk said.

Kirk said one of his primary missions is to see the Doha round fulfilled through the creation of new economic opportunities. Completing the negotiations would make a major contribution to global development and growth. But he added that the United States will need a clearer view of what it can expect to receive from the trade talks, and what it is expected to give.

“We seek to build on the progress that we’ve made and find the best way forward, and we collectively want to think about a new path to address the remaining issues,” he said. “To us, success means a balanced and ambitious agreement with meaningful market-access gains for all involved.”

Kirk, who began his job in March, has been conducting a review of trade policy, and trading partners are waiting to determine whether and how the new administration will change its negotiating stance. He is expected to give more details about his thinking in a major policy speech May 18 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

“We need to have the Americans’ position on the negotiations. At the moment, we’re waiting,” WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy told the French news agency AFP in a March interview.

In Geneva, Kirk held two days of meetings with more than half of the WTO’s 153 members, including Lamy and European Union Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton. His meetings included talks with ambassadors and trade ministers from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe.

“While the United States stands ready to work toward a successful conclusion to Doha, we humbly recognize that our participation is not the only factor necessary to bring this round to a successful conclusion,” he said. “The United States does not believe that we should start the Doha Round over or change its underlying mandate.”

The United States is not locked into any particular process — such as setting formulas for tariff and subsidy cuts, or negotiating tariff cuts and other concessions bilaterally, Kirk said. “We are suggesting that we have to be open to all possibilities.”

U.S. trade exports accounted for a record 13 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of total goods and services produced, in 2008. In the three years leading up to the current economic crisis, export expansion accounted for 47 percent of overall American GDP growth.

Kirk also told trade ministers that the United States remains committed to supporting Russia’s entry into the WTO.

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