Securing a deal to tear down barriers to global trade is the most important challenge facing global economic policy makers, British finance minister Gordon Brown said today.
World Trade Organization (WTO) talks have picked up steam in recent days, but rich and poor countries remain far apart in the run-up to a crucial meeting in Hong Kong in December of ministers of all 148 WTO member countries.
A repeat in Hong Kong of the failure of two previous WTO meetings, in Seattle in 1999 and in Cancun in 2003, would deal a potentially fatal blow to the WTO's Doha round of market-opening talks, which are due to be completed by the end of 2006.
"In our view, if we are to avoid the disappointments of Seattle and Cancun, then Europe and America must move together and Europe should lead the way in rejecting agricultural protectionism," Mr Brown told a news conference.
Mr Brown is in Beijing for a weekend meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 rich and developing countries.
"We hope advanced countries will reduce their trade barriers and their farm subsidies so as to provide a bigger market for developing countries," Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing said.
The Doha round, begun four years ago and already well behind schedule, aims to lower barriers to business across the globe. If successful, the World Bank says it will lift tens of millions of people out of poverty by boosting trade.
Mr Brown and Mr Jin released a joint paper on globalisation that combines support for measured liberalisation with a recognition that different countries may need to set their own pace.