British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told world leaders that they risk seeing protectionism dominate the world's trade agendas if a liberalising trade agreement can not be worked out in next week's G8 summit in Japan.
Brown said time was running out for the world to secure a deal liberalising the world's trade however the Guardian reports his officials are confident that a deal can be struck despite a recent row between the French president Nicolas Sarkozy and EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson.
Brown said time was running out for the world to secure a deal liberalising the world's trade however the Guardian reports his officials are confident that a deal can be struck despite a recent row between the French president Nicolas Sarkozy and EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson.
Brown's aides are increasingly optimistic that a deal to liberalise global markets in industry, agriculture and services can be struck despite the recent row between the French president, Nicholas Sarkozy, and the EU trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, over the union's willingness to make concessions in a final round of talks expected this month in Geneva.
A British official said: "What is needed is politicians to give a lead to the negotiators because sometimes negotiators just like negotiating."
Officials have been over-optimistic in the past, but they believe if no progress is made when the major players meet then a trade deal is off the cards for up to a year as a new US president studies the issues. [source]
Recent comments by U.S. President George Bush seem to have given the
trade issue prominence as participating countries look to set the
agenda for the all-important summit due to begin in Toyako, Japan on Monday.
Along with rising food and energy prices, the environment and global health care, Bush said he would look to the summit to improve the situation on the stalled Doha round of trade talks aimed at liberalising world trade.
"We will work to tear down barriers to trade and investment around the world," he said. [source]A report by Dow Jones newswire, quoted by business journal FXstreet.com, quotes a British government official as saying the first meeting of the G8 with focus on economic issues including "financial markets, oil and food prices."
"I think the discussion will be not around what can the G8 do to bring down oil prices tomorrow...but around how we change perceptions of (future) supply and demand," the official said.The official said the G8 has come at a "fortuitous time" prior to the next ministerial-level talks of the World Trade Organisation later in the month.
The G8 summit with meet in Hokkaido from July 7-9 and will consist of the world's leading industrialised nations Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United States and host Japan.
Image top right: G8 summit 2008 logo
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