WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick urged on Monday parties to retrieve the Doha negotiations.

"As the dust settles from the breakdown of the WTO negotiations in Geneva, some parties are recognizing that there was a good package of results left on the table," said Zoellick in a statement, warning that "it would be a mistake for the world economy and harmful for developing countries not to retrieve it."

"Given the high food prices around the world and the need for poor people to lower their cost of food, it just does not make sense for the Doha negotiations to founder upon this barrier," he said.

Zoellick noted that there are ways to solve this problem.

A big problem with safeguards is that once a country triggers them, it can take two years or more to challenge the grounds for imposing them. In the meantime, the new barriers block trade. So a compromise could create a speedy due process for challenges, without appeal, he said.

All parties seem to agree that safeguards should not be imposed to block normal trade flows. But they disagree on how much of a change warrants the temporary protection of a safeguard.

Since the purpose of a safeguard is to help cushion the effect of a significant increase in imports on local producers, an acceptablejustification for the safeguard could require examination of factors in addition to increased trade flows, said the leader.

Under current WTO practice, the economy imposing a safeguard decides how much protection is appropriate. But this protection could be disciplined and limited, he added.

"It may be understandable that tired negotiators couldn't assemble these and perhaps other variables in a way to solve the problem. But they should not quit trying," Zoellick stressed.

"There is too much at stake to let this problem derail a global trade package that could expand economic growth and opportunity by cutting subsidies drastically, lowering tariffs significantly, and opening up services markets. There is a good Doha deal still to be seized," he said.
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