|
Brazilian Foreign Minister
Celso Amorim
has said the world trade talks that collapsed last month are not
dead, even as he focused attention on shoring up the South American
trade bloc Mercosur. "The failure to reach consensus in the Doha
Round in Geneva is not synonymous with paralysis," Amorim said. "We
are making progress on several points."
Brazil has been making
efforts to
revive the negotiations held under the auspices of the WTO. India,
too, is saying it would like to return to the negotiating table.
He was speaking at a
meeting of the
Mercosur parliament, which represents the trade bloc grouping
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Amorim was of the view that
the collapse "affected the poor countries the worst, because
agricultural barriers and subsidies deprived populations in the poor
countries of the opportunity to compete in the world market,
retarding their development." Venezuela is scheduled to also soon
join the bloc.
With a WTO deal out of
reach, Brazil is
concentrating on Mercosur as a way of improving trade prospects and
laying the political groundwork for political unity among South
American nations should world trade negotiations resume.
Brazil intended to
reactivate
Mercosur's talks with the EU which had been put on ice since 2004.
Brazil also planned to push for the abolition of double customs
tariffs on goods within the regional bloc, and to find a way of
sharing customs revenues, Amorim said. (Source: Petroleum World)
August 21, 2008
|
