New Delhi, April 8:

India and other key trading powers will meet here this week for potentially make-or-break talks to end a deadlock in the Doha Round of global trade negotiations.

Ministerial representatives from the G4 group of influential trading players - the EU, the US, Brazil and India - will strive to reach a common position on agriculture, industrial goods and services during the two-day meeting which starts on Wednesday.

“These talks are timely and important,” EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said in Brussels ahead of the talks. “If we fail at these talks, Doha’s prospects for this year will be lost.” The meeting in the Indian capital will be attended by Mandelson, Indian commerce minister Kamal Nath, US trade representative Susan Schwab and Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim.

“We hope there’ll be some movement at this meeting but it depends on how far developing countries’ aspirations are fulfilled,” an Indian government spokesman said.

The WTO is hoping to conjure up a deal before the end of June when crucial trade negotiating powers of US president Bush are set to expire. Nath has said there is “no commitment by India on the deadline” and factors like the expiry of Bush’s Trade Promotion Authority should not dictate the pace of negotiations.

If a breakthrough can be achieved by June, a conclusion to the Doha talks - which have been called a once-in-a-generation chance to help bring millions out of poverty - could be reached in about eight months, WTO officials say. Otherwise the Doha round, launched in the Qatari capital Doha in 2001 risks years of delay, they said.

An agreement among the world’s two biggest trading powers, the US and EU, and the two leading developing nations India and Brazil, is seen as crucial to hopes of brokering a compromise among the WTO’s 150 members this year. India and Brazil have emerged as leaders in the developing world’s challenge to the wealthy nations to curtail generous farm subsidies as they seek to keep their own agriculture supports.

US, China row

WASHINGTON: The US is to take China before the WTO this week in a copyright piracy row, the latest of several US trade moves against the Asian giant. The administration of president George W Bush is to refer two charges of alleged abuse of intellectual property by China to the global mediator “this coming week,” The Wall Street Journal reported. — AFP