Lamy’s prediction breathes some fresh life into eight years of talks aimed at reaching an agreement on global trade liberalization. The talks collapsed last July as negotiators failed to overcome a clash between the US and India over how poor nations could raise tariffs when agricultural imports surge.

Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma said Thursday that a meeting with new US Trade Representative Ron Kirk had been “very positive” and that resuming the talks “should start sooner than later.”

“We want to encourage our representatives in Geneva to try to engage in a more robust dialogue,” Kirk told reporters Friday in Bali after a meeting of trade ministers from the 19-nation Cairns Group as well as India and the US, “We are eager to engage our colleagues.”

‘Clearly engaging’

The Doha Round is aimed at striking a pact in which wealthy governments including the European Union and the US lower farm subsidies and tariffs in exchange for China, India, Brazil and other emerging economies opening up their markets to imports of farm goods and manufactured products.

“We’ve done 80 percent of the job and 20 percent remains,” Lamy said after Friday’s meeting. “What I saw was Ron Kirk and Anand Sharma clearly engaging in a process that should lead to the conclusion of the round sometime next year.”

The US will block a deal unless the talks create tangible benefits for American exporters, Miriam Sapiro, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be Kirk’s deputy, said on June 5, adding that, “No deal is better than a bad deal.”

Lamy has argued that an agreement would shield against protectionist policies that may spread as economic growth falters in nations around the world.

“The Doha outcome has to deliver new market openings and not simply lock in the status quo of the current trading system,” Kirk said Friday.

The Cairns Group, whose nations account for a quarter of the world’s farm trade, asked WTO members to refrain from levying protectionist tariffs on agricultural products amid the worst global slump since the Great Depression.

“Even measures that are applied within WTO commitments can still have significant protectionist effect,” the group said in a statement Friday. “At this critical time in the global economic downturn, it’s essential we guard against increased protectionism in agriculture.”

Source: Bloomberg