U.S. urges emerging powers to open markets

By Jonathan Lynn

GENEVA (Reuters) - Big emerging countries like China, India, Brazil and South Africa must do more to open their markets to secure a new global trade deal, the U.S. trade chief said on Wednesday.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, who took up his job in March, was speaking after two days of intense talks with U.S. trade partners at the World Trade Organization (WTO), and said his reception could not have been better.

Kirk said both he and President Barack Obama were committed to reaching a deal in the WTO's long-running Doha round.

"We see it not only as a critical component of what the president believes should be an overall worldwide response to the current economic crisis, but it's also critical to the sustenance of many of our least developed countries," he said.

But he told a news conference -- in a clear message to the big emerging powers -- that a deal required more than participation by the United States.

In his talks, Kirk met representatives of more than half the WTO's 153 members, including African and Latin American countries and the European Union -- the biggest U.S. trading partner -- as well as with WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy.

UNBEARABLE PAIN

Kirk said the economic crisis was hurting nations like China and the United States but causing unbearable pain to the poorest countries, who Washington believes should not be asked to make further sacrifices to reach a deal on Doha.

With the U.S. market already fully open to 98 percent of goods from least developed countries, their next opportunities would come from the big emerging countries, who should open up their markets to create a "win-win-win" deal, he said.

The Doha round was launched in late 2001 to help poor countries prosper through more trade in food, goods like cars and clothing, and services like telecoms and banking.

But to sell a deal back home, U.S. negotiators will need to point to new opportunities for American businesses too, and the former Dallas mayor said a Doha deal would have to bring meaningful gains in market access for all countries.

He said the United States did not want to throw away the work that had gone into the Doha talks over the past seven years, but clearly the process was not working, and Washington is looking for new ways forward.

One possibility under consideration is to drop the effort to agree on a general formula for cutting tariffs and subsidies, known in trade jargon as "modalities," and go straight into "scheduling" -- negotiating cuts in import duties and other moves on a bilateral basis. Kirk did not rule this out.

It would have the advantage of letting U.S. businesses -- whose support is critical to getting a deal pushed through the U.S. Congress -- see quickly what they are getting, but is likely to be resisted by developing countries who fear they could be strong-armed into a deal.

Kirk's visit was part of a trade policy review by the new White House, and he is expected to give details of his thinking in a keynote speech on Monday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.