Doha talks will determine next decade's economy- Con of British Ind

Bangalore, Jan 17 (UNI) Confederation of British Industry Director General Richard Lombart today observed that the tone of the global economy in the next decade will be determined by the outcome of Doha Development Round of multilateral tradce negotiations.

Participating in the session on 21st Century:Global Outlook at the three day CII Partnership Summit here, he said the fate of talks, considered to be an immediate challenge, would be determined sometime between now and around the end of April.

The rewards of the success would be very clear. A successful outcome would help to underwrite economic conditions that had driven world trade and global growth so far inthe 21st century he added.

The conventional wisdom- correctly-assumes that it was the developing countries that had the most to gain from trade liberalisation and the developed economies would benefit from the impact of more competitively priced imports as well as access to new markets around the world, he observed.

He also noted that the cost of failures were harder to pin but would be substantial. He listed three failures saying that there would not be another chance again, at least for a generation. "If after six years of effort, Doha comes to nothing, policy makers would shrug their shoulders and concentrate on bilateral deals whereever they were to be found.

He said an European Union and India Trade agreement was an important step forward provided it was sufficiently ambitious. Both these organisations also agree that there was no substitute for Doha and there would be real risks in a shift to a whole flurry of bilateral deals. The second failure would be the weakening of credibility of the World Trade Organisation and with it the authority of the rule based multilateral trading system.

Thirdly the critically important global negotiations would also be put at risk, he feared.

MORE UNI