World Bank chief calls for breakthrough progress on Doha Round

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Chinese media) -- World Bank Group

President Robert B. Zoellick urged trade ministers on Sunday to reach an accord

on the Doha Development Agenda.

"It has never been more important for WTO members to

move forward on the Doha Development Agenda. It's now or never," said Zoellick

on the eve of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting, which will

be held in Geneva, Switzerland next week.

"A breakthrough in the Doha Round would infuse

confidence in a world economy buffeted by high food and energy prices, as well

as financial strains," he said.

"Both developing and developed economies stand to

gain from lower barriers to goods and agriculture," said the World Bank leader.

"There are also great opportunities to expand trade among developing economies

-- the so-called South-South trade, which is expanding rapidly."

A solid Doha deal should also boost markets for

services which are an increasing share of global GDP and for enablers of

national development and infrastructure, as well as complement the measures to

facilitate trade, said Zoellick.

"Breakthrough progress on the Doha Round is essential

if we are to resist the current cries for protectionism," he said, warning that

a return to economic isolationism "would reap the losses, not the gains, of

globalization."

Swiss optimistic ahead of WTO talks

Swiss Economy Minister Doris Leuthard looks on during a news conference of G-10 Group in Geneva July 20, 2008. World trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy called a ministerial meeting in Geneva, which starts formally on July 21 and is set to last a week, to push for a breakthrough in the long-running Doha round. (Chinese media/Reuters Photo)
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GENEVA, July 20 (Chinese media) -- Swiss Economics Minister Doris Leuthard expressed confidence Sunday that a ministerial meeting in Geneva this week aimed at concluding global trade talks would be successful.

The gathering of more than 30 trade ministers will attempt

to make a breakthrough in the so-called Doha Round, which calls for cuts to

tariffs and subsidies that constrain exports but has stumbled so far on

sensitive issues such as agriculture. Full story