G8 plus G5 leaders expected to conclude Doha round in 2010

G8 leaders plus Brazil, India, China, Mexico and South Africa will agree at a summit today to conclude the Doha round of world trade talks successfully in 2010, according to a draft communiqué seen by Reuters.

"Leaders commit to reaching an ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha round in 2010, consistent with its mandate, building on progress already made on modalities," said the draft prepared for today's meeting of the so-called G8 plus G5.

The Doha talks have been effectively on ice since a meeting of ministers last July failed to clinch an outline agreement, although World Trade Organisation's Director-General Pascal Lamy said it had completed 80 per cent of a deal.

A separate draft statement to be issued by the Group of Eight industrialised nations – the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Canada – yesterday committed to concluding the talks as soon as possible.

But it stops short of setting a date for reaching a deal to boost dwindling trade suffering from the worst economic slump since the Second World War.

"This is merely technical. The G8 statement will feed into the G8 plus G5 statement the next day," said a G8 source involved in preparing the summit in the Italian town of L'Aquila.

"The G8 alone cannot achieve Doha, they need the agreement of the G5 to have any realistic chance of success and this is why the second day's statement is so important."

The Doha round was launched in 2001 to help poor countries prosper through trade, but in the nearly eight years since then the talks have stumbled repeatedly as trading powers clashed over proposals to cut tariffs and subsidies on goods from food to chemicals.

Lamy said last month that a deal could be clinched in 2010 because the mood of the negotiations had improved since the appointment this year of United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk and India Trade Minister Anand Sharma whose countries are seen as key to unlocking a deal.

But Lamy declined to comment on the prospects for a deal being reached in 2010, saying: "I probably will be able to give you a clearer answer to this question on Friday after the G8 and the G8-plus-five discussions on trade."

Trade ministers meeting on the sidelines of the OECD in June had also hoped the G8 and their G5 partners would agree a detailed timeline for concluding the talks, which could be taken to September's more influential meeting of the Group of G20 industrialised and developing countries in Pittsburgh.

"We instruct relevant ministers to meet before the G20 in Pittsburgh," said the draft, adding the technical work should start quickly at the WTO in Geneva.

India has already indicated it is willing to host the long-awaited "mini-ministerial" at the beginning of September.

If ministers can agree on substance and provide a binding timeline for the G20 meeting, said sources familiar with the negotiations a further ministerial meeting could be held on the margins of the WTO's general assembly in December with a view to completing the round in the early part of 2010.

"The US are concerned about mid-term elections for Congress there in the second half of next year," said a source involved. (The following story contains no dateline to protect the sources of the information)

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