WASHINGTON, Jul. 29, 2006 (IPS/GIN) -- Despite the acrimonious collapse of an agreement on new global trade rules earlier this week, major European and U.S. business lobbies are joining forces to try and revive the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, whose complete failure could spell the loss of major market profits in developing nations.
"The suspension of the talks could lead to a failure of the Doha Round, which would undermine the promise of economic growth inherent in the DDA, and result in the loss of opportunities for WTO members to gain the tremendous benefits that accrue from trade liberalization," said a joint statement by seven of the world's largest business groups. "In order to avoid this situation, we strongly hope that the negotiations will resume as early as possible," it added.
The organizations include the Business Roundtable, the United States Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, all powerful business pressure groups from the United States.
The Confederation of European Business, which represents more than 20 million companies in the European Union, also signed the statement.
The Business Council of Australia, the Australian Services Roundtable and Nippon Keidanren, a key Japanese pressure group, along with the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry and the Federation of Industries of the State of S o Paulo (FIESP), the only two groups from a developing country, all joined in as well.
What these business organizations fear most is a new wave of protectionist measures that could erode their power and access to markets and therefore lower profits. http://feed.insnews.org/v-cgi/feeds.cgi?feedid=149&story_id=2030619The men behind the curtain are pissed now. The world's money men are upset the developing nations escaped their grasp and are still free to own their own countries' resources. 
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