Trade Liberalization Deal By The End Of 2007

Leading powers made a commitment to work more intensely on reaching an agreement on global trade liberalization.

The six leading world trade powers have made a commitment to work more intensely in the future on reaching the agreement on global trade liberalization within the World Trade Organization (WTO) by the end of this year. 

Trade ministers of the USA, European Union, India, Brazil, Australia, and Japan – the group known as G6 – announced that they would cooperate with all WTO member countries in the interest of concluding this round of negotiations on the liberalization of trade within the set deadline.

"We believe that by intensifying our work, we can reach convergence and thus contribute to concluding the round by the end of 2007," said the ministers' joint statement.

"My assessment is if we can translate the sense of urgency into action it is a realizable goal," said US Trade Representative Susan Schwab to the press, following the two days of talks in the India capital, New Delhi. 

An integral part of these efforts is also the planned meeting of the G4 group, which includes the USA, EU, India, and Brazil, that should take place in mid-May with the goal to break the obstacles in the trade negotiations. 

The agreement of the two biggest trade powers, the USA and EU, and two leading developing countries, India and Brazil, was estimated to be the key prerequisite for the reaching of the trade liberalization agreement within the WTO.

The agenda of the meeting has not been set yet, but an unnamed official said that concrete numbers should be put forth and all the negotiators should finally put their cards on the table in regard to the concessions that their countries are willing to make.