US trade representative: WTO needs compromised Bali agreement

The United States urged ministers to reach a compromised agreement on multilateral trade, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said here Wednesday. "Leaving Bali this week without an agreement will deal a debilitating blow to the WTO as a forum for multilateral negotiations," Forman said when delivering a speech at the plenary session of the Ninth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference. Froman said such an agreement is so important because it will "prove to the skeptical world that the WTO is a vital vibrant institution capable of producing important result for trade and development." Froman agreed that such a deal can not be ideal for everyone, therefore compromises are needed. "The first multilateral agreement since the creation of the WTO is not just within reach, it is at hand, if only we take hold of it," he said, adding that "even though no one can get what all they want in a Bali agreement, we can have an agreement that serve us all." The WTO kicked off its ninth ministerial conference on Tuesday afternoon in the Indonesian resort island of Bali, struggling to revive the long-stalled Doha Round by reaching a possible trade deal at the four-day meeting. Trade chiefs of the WTO's 159 members is working to break trade impasses and finalize a package of global trade agreements that mainly cover trade facilitation, development and agriculture, in a bid to pave the way for future completion of the Doha Round.