Warning that failure of Doha round would hurt world trade and WTO, renowned global trade economist, Jagdish Bhagwati on Wednesday said unless the United States moves decisively and effectively, it would be difficult to successfully conclude the trade negotiations by the end of 2011.
The United States and other developed countries are pushing for more market access in developing nations including in India. They are also demanding that developing countries should contribute more for conclusion of the Doha deal. ``Unless the US moves effectively, it is going to be very difficult to implement this in the fixed time frame,’’ Prof. Bhagwati said here at a FICCI seminar on WTO here. The
G-20 leaders have said that there is an opportunity for the 153 WTO members to conclude the talks this year. Prof. Bhagwati said that delay in concluding the Doha Round of talks on time would hurt the WTO. ``Ultimately the onus lie on finding out a way in which we get the US President, Barack Obama to move,’’ he added. Doha round of talks under the leadership of WTO started in the Doha, the Capital of Qatar in 2001 for achieving a global trade deal but a breakthrough has yet to emerge.
India and other developing nations are defending their agricultural markets to protect millions of subsistence farmers from easy imports that may result from the multilateral agreement. ``It just cannot go like that because we will loose faith in it. It will also affect the health of the organisation,’’ he said.
