Singapore/Geneva - Asia is starting to see a rebound in trade and might lead the world in its recovery from plunging volumes of commerce said Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organization, on Wednesday. The WTO, in its annual report on world trade, reaffirmed that the organization expects trade to drop 10 per cent this year.

The figures from the Asian economies indicated that they "may be leading the new expansion of world trade," Lamy said in Singapore, upon launching the report while attending a meeting of 21 trade ministers of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC).

The world trade annual review for 2009 focused on contingency measures taken by governments to protect their industries and important economic sectors. These include imposition of anti-dumping measures or the raising of tariffs as a means to weather the economic crisis.

There is a double sided coin to those measures, the report indicated.

On the one hand, increases in the defence of domestic sectors are sometimes allowed under international trade rules. They can be vitally important as political tools and can also play a role in strengthening the legal system supporting global commerce.

Nonetheless, the WTO said it hopes such measures, if implemented during the ongoing crisis, will be reversed at the earliest possible date for fear that they might upset the balance of trade agreements, causing economic harm.

"Protecting trade can be tempting until everybody understands that protectionism does not protect," Lamy said, adding that even emergency contingency measures "need to be used with care."

Pressure was likely to increase on policymakers to restrict trade, "particularly if the upswing in unemployment persists before things get better," Lamy said.

But to exit the crisis "it will be important that governments are willing to reverse actions they took to manage the crisis," he added.

The WTO recognized that leaders sometimes need to implement such trade actions.

The measures "also provide governments with a political margin of manoeuvre and can act as a safety valve when political pressures build," the report noted.

"I can think of no more effective means of signalling a shared determination to weather the crisis at a minimum cost than to bring the Doha round to a speedy conclusion," Lamy said at the ministers' meet.

The ongoing trade talks, launched in Doha, Qatar in 2001, and dubbed a development round meant to help lift poorer countries into greater economic growth, has been stalled, largely over a dispute between emerging countries and developed economies, over subsidies and market access.

At a recent summit in Italy, leaders of many of the most important economies committed themselves to completing Doha rapidly. However, Lamy has said it will take concerted political will.

Posted : Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:11:37 GMT
Author : DPA

Source: www.earthtimes.org