---

World Trade (Doha Development Agenda)

That is a telling point. Indeed, Mr. Amess, you will have heard that the degree of agreement among the Committee is such that we can call each other our hon. Friends. We are good colleagues and friends. The high hopes that the trade talks would be a development round—it was described by Pascal Lamy as a round for free for the poorest countries, giving them market access without reciprocal concessions—now look pretty jaded. Some people, including Pascal Lamy, are saying that there may be a brief window to secure a deal after the US elections next month and perhaps in February next year. Frankly, it is difficult to be optimistic, given the lack of progress to date over a much longer time scale. The greater concern is that, because nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, less developed countries may feel pressured into making concessions to secure what is on the table now. Evidence from some countries is that that is the case. That demonstrates the point made by the right hon. Gentleman: it would effectively amount to an unholy alliance of the developed countries and the larger developing countries, to the detriment of poor countries. There are those who welcome the current impasse on the Doha round. For example, War on Want says that resuming negotiations is now the worst possible option, and Christian Aid says that simply resuming talks on the same basis as before would be a mistake. However, Pascal Lamy, the World Trade Organisation director general says that if the talks were not resumed"““All of us would pay…the breakdown of negotiations would cause for great celebration within the protectionist ranks””." He adds:"““The pity in all this is that what is on the table now constitutes greater progress in rolling back farm subsidies and tariffs than anything seen before in global negotiations…powerful tariff cutting formulas that were on the verge of agreement would have opened global markets as never before””." However, somebody in the developed world has to take a lead at this time. Ministers and Commissioners say the right things, but we are currently at a standstill. The Financial Times speaks of"““a faintly silly game of competitive concern for the revival of Doha, with ministers and officials dashing around the globe ostentatiously holding meetings to prove their commitment to the trade round that their intransigence has just brought to a shuddering halt””." As I have said, the situation was difficult when we published our report in April, but it is much more serious now. If trade negotiations move from the multilateral to the bilateral we will, as the Financial Times again observes, replace the rule of law with the rule of the jungle. Rather eloquently, it says:"““The WTO talks are a loom that weaves thousands of mercantilist strands into a tapestry of free trade."" That is a sentence worthy of the hon. Member for Buckingham (John Bercow) at his most florid. I welcome the fact that the EU has exercised a moratorium on any new trade negotiations—bilaterals—since the beginning of the Doha round. Frankly, if that moratorium has ended—there are those who call for it to end—I suggest that that is a signal of the beginning of the end for the possibility of EU leadership in multilateral free trade. I hope that the Minister will agree that such deals are not just, as some people think, second best in the absence of a WTO deal; I repeat that they are ultimately the negation of free trade. Despite the rhetoric, the EU and the USA do not have a credible track record on free trade. Therefore, the test now is not who blinks first, but whether the EU can stop blaming the US and unilaterally break the deadlock with a bold new initiative. Will the Government be prepared to put their head above the parapet and make such a demand? If nobody does, it is not just the developed world that will lose the Doha round: free trade will be the casualty and we will all be the losers, rich and poor alike.