The $7 billion a year we will miss

The failure of the latest round of world trade talks will cost Australia about $7 billion a year.

High hopes had been held for these extremely difficult talks, almost up to the last minute.

But they collapsed on a disagreement between the United States and a group of developing countries, led by China and India.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is making no secret of its dissapointment.

“A bold and comprehensive outcome from the Doha round could potentially have been worth another $7 billion a year to the Australian economy,” the chamber said.

It said there would also have been similar benefits for many other countries.

Thousands would have been lifted  out of poverty.

“Given the current global economic climate, it is disappointing that a small minority of the 153 WTO member countries have failed to demonstrate the leadership required to make the hard decsions necessary to benefit the gobal economy, it said.

Economists have estimated that the previous round of world trade talks, the Uruguay round, has already boosted Australia’s economic output by about $4.4 billion a year.

The chamber said Australia’s trade minister, Simon Crean, had worked tirelessly for a better outcome.
Mr Crean, too, was frank about his disappointment.

“We were poised to get significant improved access into the European market, into the US market – particularly in agriculture, but also in industrial products,” he said in a radio interview.
“…we would have seen the end to export subsidies out of this round

” we would have seen the end to the special safeguards mechanism that existed for developed countries.,

” We would have seen big cuts to tariffs.

“And the other big gain that came was the signalling conference on services;

“It’s such a frustrating circumstance.

“You know you’re that close, but, close enough is not good enough,” Crean said.