Publications
Partners
Beijing - Trade ministers of the five Bric nations warned on Wednesday that global trade talks were at risk of collapsing but that they were willing to resume negotiations based on 2008 agreements.
"The delicate balance of trade-offs achieved over 10 years of negotiations and contained in the draft July 2008 texts risks being upset," the ministers said in a draft press statement obtained by Reuters.
The Brics group is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and new member South Africa. Economic and trade ministers are meeting in Sanya, China before a summit of Brics leaders on Thursday.
The group favours a continuation of the Doha round on the basis of a preliminary agreement that brought the talks nearly to a final deal in mid-2008 but rejected demands that developing countries now need to make more concessions.
"Ministers remain willing to conclude the round on the basis of those draft modalities," they said in the draft statement.
The United States last month said major emerging economies like Brazil needed to muster the political courage to open their markets.
But Brazil has been objecting to US demands for more market access to services and nonfarm goods and says Washington was also asking China, India and Brazil to make higher, obligatory tariff cuts on industrial goods.
