London: Amid growing fears that the WTO talks in Hong Kong next month may end in failure, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has asked the US and the European Union to take "bold and ambitious" steps to cut agricultural subsidies.
Blair also asked India and Brazil to open up their industry and service sectors.
While delivering the annual foreign affairs speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet on Monday, Blair called for a "comprehensive, ambitious agreement" to cut barriers in trade and services.
"The European Union and the US must go further, within the negotiations, on agriculture," Blair said.
"We must reduce trade distorting subsidies and see a credible end date for export subsidies," Blair added.
Blair further added that Brazil, India and others must have cuts in industrial tariffs, services liberalisation, with proper flexibility for developing countries that need to sequence their commitments in line with their development needs.
Agriculture accounts for under 2 per cent of the GDP of rich countries and roughly the same share of employment. "Can we afford to weaken an international trading system on which future employment and prosperity in rich countries depends?" Blair asked.
The Prime Minister said that a one per cent increase in Africa's share of world trade would benefit Africa by over $70 billion, three times the aid agreed at the G8 summit at Gleneagles in Scotland in July.
He accepted France's argument that Africa could lose out in the short term if the proposed deal removed preferential trade agreements with the EU. But he argued that in the long run, poor countries "stand to gain if we are bold, confident and ambitious."
Blair said the talks were an opportunity to tackle "some of the most fundamental injustices at the heart of world trade".
His speech came as a report by Oxfam warned that Blair's campaign to alleviate Africa's problems was doomed to failure.
At the Hampton Court EU summit in October, French President Jacques Chirac said that he would block a deal in Hong Kong rather than make deep cuts in Europe's farm subsidies.
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