Global trade talks are unlikely to top the agenda at next month s International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank meeting, despite a call from the British finance minister to make the issue a priority. Britain s finance minister Gordon Brown, who heads the IMF S main policy-steering group said on Tuesday that trade liberalization talks should be a focus at September s annual meeting in Singapore. The agenda for the meetings is likely to be decided on Friday, but experts say it is unlikely to center on trade liberalization. The Doha round of world trade talks was suspended in July after a failure to reach an agreement on agriculture. Despite the impasse in negotiations, neither the International Monetary and Financial Committee nor the World Bank s steering committee equivalent, the Development Committee, have trade on their draft agendas, according to a person familiar with the preparations. The head of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, is also scheduled to attend both meetings solely as an observer. I doubt it will be on the top of the agenda but it should be a priority concern for finance ministers and central bankers, said Jeffrey Schott of the Institute for International Economics think tank. I understand the (IMF) managing director is quite concerned and is going to be making a number of presentations on the importance to the global economy of getting the trade negotiations back on track, he added. Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations have urged progress in trade talks at each of their meetings in the past years. The results of U.S. elections in November could also affect the future of the Doha negotiations. I remain very hopeful that the Doha negotiations will be restarted eventually and lead to a modest advance toward more open markets, but I am not expecting this to happen in short order, said World Bank trade director Uri Dadush.
