China hopes the ongoing Doha Development Agenda trade talks will ease the agenda's deadlock, allowing the round to finish by the end of the year, according to a senior trade expert.

 

The remarks were made by Li Zhongzhou, a World Trade Organization (WTO) expert, over the ongoing trade ministers' conference in Geneva.

 

Li said the ongoing Doha talks are currently largely blocked by disagreements about agricultural market access, the reduction of domestic agricultural subsidies, and industrial trade. In order to make real breakthroughs in these talks, he said, the US and the EU should offer to substantially reduce domestic subsidies and import tariffs.

 

"As long as they carry out their commitments in agricultural sector talks, developing countries will show their flexibility to opening up the market for non-agricultural products," said Li.

 

The G20 group of developing nations has called on the US to reduce the subsidies it pays to farmers by 75 percent, and the EU to reduce its average tariff rate by 54 percent.

 

But the US and EU so far only accept 53 percent and 39 percent reductions respectively.

 

Although he is "not very optimistic" about the talks, Li still hopes they will produce some progress.

 

"The direction has been set, the problem is how far we can go," he said.

 

WTO director Pascal Lamy said the current round of talks come at a crucial time for the organization.

 

If ministers reach template agreements for trade in agricultural and industrial products, all remaining problems could be solved at a ministerial conference in July.

 

Otherwise, the problems are unlikely to be resolved this year, a target set earlier by ministers.

 

(China Daily June 30, 2006)