Brown urges global push to clinch trade deal

London, Nov 6: Governments and business leaders must work together to breathe life back into stalled global trade talks before it is too late, British finance minister Gordon Brown said.

Likening the need for the will to hammer out a deal at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to the determination required to create the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Brown said it was vital to overcome the ''dangerous global logjam'' to reform.

''Three months have elapsed since the world trade talks stalled, and the time has come for bold and concerted action to restart the drive for an ambitious trade deal,'' Brown wrote in an article in today's Times newspaper.

''I am urging progressive global business leaders and government to join forces with governments in a new push for a breakthrough,'' he said.

Disagreements over agriculture brought the WTO's Doha round to a halt in July. The 149-member group faces an effective deadline of early next year for a breakthrough because of key U.S. trade negotiating legislation that expires in July 2007.

Keen to see progress, Brown called on the European Union, the United States and Brazil -- three key WTO players-- to pledge larger than before cuts in trade-distorting farm and industrial tariffs and subsidies.

He also proposed a ''trade exchange'' of political and business interests to expose the benefits of globalisation, particularly for the poorest countries, and push for change.

''In my view we should stake our governments' future on getting globalisation right,'' Brown said.

''We need the global political will to build new arrangements for our time -- and the same determination that post war leaders demonstrated in theirs in building the IMF, World Bank and the new international economic order after 1945.'' Nine leaders of companies, including oil giant BP, mobile phone operator Vodafone and retailer Wal-Mart, and Marcus Wallenberg, chair of the International Chamber of Commerce, supported the call to restart trade talks.

In a letter to the Times, they wrote: ''Millions of jobs are at stake. So too is the extension of international investment and the spread of knowledge which are both vital to the success of globalisation and the fair distribution of its benefits.'' The business heads added: ''Political leadership is now essential, and action in the next few weeks is imperative.'' Hoping to help move the WTO talks forward, the Times said rown was due to go to Brussels tomorrow, British Treasury minister Ed Balls was heading to Japan and Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling was off to Brazil and India.

Reuters