Implementing the G20 commitment to World Trade Reform
Author: Saul Eslake, Chief Economist, ANZ Banking Group
After committing Australia to support the G20 goal of opening world markets, a commitment re-affirmed by Trade Minister Crean last week in Peru, Prime Minister Rudd has returned home to consider his government’s response to the Mortimer review of our own trade policy.
The G20 objective is just that—an objective. It will only become more if a way to implement it can be introduced into the WTO.
The document prepared with our two New Zealand colleagues explained why the Mortimer review does not help Prime Minister Rudd meet his commitment to support the WTO. It has the same relevance for the G20 objective. Any strategy to restore progress in the multilateral system must provide a basis for reducing the conflict, so evident in the Doha Round, between the two separate processes involved in multilateral trade reform.