The multilateral trading system is in a difficult spot after the World Trade Organization (WTO) failed to produce the necessary agreements for a new round of global trade talks, said a senior United Nations official.

There is still no indication that the Doha round, launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital, could be completed on schedule by the end of 2004, said Rubens Ricupero, secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), late Monday on the sidelines of a major international conference.

UNCTAD focuses its efforts mainly on facilitating development of poor countries through progress in the trade sector.

Ricupero said WTO officials have been holding consultations with member economies after the WTO ministerial meeting, held in Cancun, Mexico in September, collapsed.

Member economies are still at odds on key issues such as agricultural subsidies. No one has shown any intention of making concessions.

"There can be surprises, good or bad, always. But till today, there is no change of positions," Ricupero said.

And the fact that the United States, a major player in the WTO, is to hold its presidential election in 2004, is likely to make a US concession on issues like agriculture even less likely, he said.

"American farmers have lots of power and many of them are in Texas," he said jokingly.

Ricupero said the disappointing results of the Cancun meeting and of the WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle in 1999 can be mainly attributed to the industrialized nations' reluctance to address development issues, mainly meant to help developing economies, as they had promised.

But these issues must be addressed, otherwise "they will never go away and keep coming back," he said.

Subsidies on some agricultural products double the price at international markets, which literally put less developed players like many African countries "out of business," he said.

But the developing countries proved that they could be tough negotiators in the trade talks, Ricupero said.

A coalition of developing countries, including Brazil, Argentina, China, India and South Africa, was formed on the agricultural issue during the Cancun meeting and acted as a powerful counter force against the United States and the European Union in the talks.

"Polarization is not always bad," Ricupero said. "This coalition is quite useful, it helps find the middle ground in the talks."

(China Daily December 3, 2003)