The head of the World Bank and Germany's main industry federation expressed concern yesterday at the pace of world trade talks - underscoring fears that trans-Atlantic differences over Iraq could blow them off course.
The so-called Doha round of trade liberalisation talks was supposed to wrap up negotiations on trade in agricultural products today but the World Trade Organisation dropped that deadline last week without fixing any new one in its place.
"We seem to be faced once again with unbridgeable differences over a question which is crucial for the success of the WTO round," Mr Ludolf von Wartenberg, secretary general of Germany's BDI industry federation, said in a statement.
"It is urgent that all WTO members show some movement," he added.
A growing number of economists are expressing fears the Iraq conflict and the diplomatic tensions it has produced between the United States and some European Union nations could spill over into trade, dealing a further blow to the world economy.
"Free trade, above all but not only in agricultural products, is tremendously important for growth and poverty reduction in poor countries," World Bank head Mr James Wolfensohn told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview.
"I remember that the Doha Round was branded the 'development round'. There's not much to show for that so far." - (Reuters)
