GENEVA (AP)--Members of the World Trade Organization should step up efforts to conclude talks on a treaty to liberalize global commerce in order to boost recovery in tsunami-hit nations, the organization's chief said Jan. 13.

In a letter to Geneva-based ambassadors to the WTO, Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi urged the organization's 148 member nations to consider new trade policies which could help the recovery of the worst-hit economies, such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

"As an important actor in international economic cooperation, the WTO shares part of the responsibility to assist recovery from this disaster," wrote Supachai, who is from Thailand, one of the affected countries.

"Although we are not involved in humanitarian assistance or disaster relief, clearly we can make a major contribution to the economies of the affected countries (and others) by pressing on with and concluding the Doha Development Agenda as soon as possible."

WTO members are trying to energize the round of trade talks they started in Doha, Qatar, in 2001--aimed at slashing subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to global commerce--after a conference in Cancun, Mexico, in September 2003 collapsed amid bickering over agriculture.

A final treaty is now expected in 2006 after high-level meetings in Geneva last summer finally led to the Aug. 1 "framework" agreement, which laid some groundwork on cutting tariffs and subsidies in agricultural trade. But there has been little progress since then.

Supachai made no specific suggestions on how to advance talks, as that is up to each WTO member government, but he urged them to consider improving access to their domestic markets and to try to avoid resorting to tariffs and other protectionist measures.

A successful conclusion to the Doha round will "generate resources that can be used to reduce poverty, which will in turn improve the capacities of countries to prevent disasters (whether tsunamis or other natural phenomena), to cope with their effects, and to recover as quickly as possible," he added.

Although benefits from a successful conclusion to the trade round will not be felt for some time, this "does not undermine the case for concluding it as soon as humanly possible," Supachai said.

"I know how deeply we all feel about the terrible toll taken by the recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia," explained Supachai. "As someone from the affected region, I naturally feel a particular sense of tragedy."

Date: 1/27/05

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