美國首次公開呼籲放棄多哈回合談判 US calls for ditching of Doha talks

The US has for the first time publicly called for the Doha Round of global trade negotiations to be abandoned, arguing that after almost a decade and a half of fruitless discussions, developing and developed nations alike needed to recognise they were going nowhere and that it was time to try new approaches.

美國首次公開呼籲放棄多哈回合(Doha Round)全球貿易談判，稱在14年談判未果後，發展中國家和發達國家都需要認識到它們一籌莫展，現在該嘗試新的方法了。

Writing in the Financial Times ahead of the World Trade Organisation’s biennial ministerial meeting in Nairobi this week, Mike Froman, the US trade representative, said that 14 years after it was launched the Doha Round “simply has not delivered”.

在本週世界貿易組織(WTO)在內羅畢召開兩年一次的部長級會議之前，美國貿易代表邁克弗羅曼(Mike Froman，上圖)在英國《金融時報》撰文稱，在多哈回合建立後的14年“根本沒有達成任何結果”。

“We need to write a new chapter for the [WTO] that reflects today’s economic realities,” Mr Froman said. “It is time for the world to free itself of the strictures of Doha.”

“我們需要爲（WTO）譜寫新的篇章，反映當今的經濟現實，”弗羅曼表示，“世界該掙脫多哈的束縛了。”

The US call sets the stage for an acrimonious showdown in Nairobi this week over the future of the Doha Round and the WTO itself that is likely to overshadow a push for a smaller agreement on a narrow range of agriculture and development issues.

美國的呼聲爲本週各國在內羅畢就多哈回合乃至WTO自身未來展開激烈辯論奠定了基礎，這可能會蓋過就少數農業和發展問題達成範圍較小協議的努力。

It also highlights what has become an uncomfortable paradox in the world of trade negotiations. While negotiators at the WTO have in recent years stepped up their efforts to revive the Doha Round, the belief of most people in the global business community is that it died a painful and final death in 2008 amid a stalemate over agriculture between developed and developing nations.

這還突顯出全球貿易談判領域一個令人不悅的悖論。儘管近幾年WTO談判代表加大了重啓多哈回合的努力，但全球商界多數人的看法是，由於發達國家和發展中國家在農業問題上陷入僵局，多哈回合已在2008年最終痛苦消亡。

The US and others have also turned their focus in recent years to new regional negotiations such as the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership, which included the US, Japan and 10 other economies.

此外，最近幾年，美國和其他國家將它們的注意力轉向新的貿易談判，例如最近達成的《跨太平洋夥伴關係協定》(Trans-Pacific Partnership)，其包括美國、日本和其他10個經濟體。

Still, many in the developing world continue to cling to the Doha negotiations.

然而，很多發展中國家不願放棄多哈回合談判。

Countries such as Brazil, China and India and many of the WTO’s African members insist the round needs to continue, because the Doha Development Agenda, as it is formally known, includes issues of vital importance to poorer countries, such as efforts to rein in agricultural subsidies in rich economies like the US and EU.

巴西、中國和印度等國以及WTO的很多非洲成員國堅稱多哈回合應繼續，因爲正式名稱爲多哈發展議程(Doha Development Agenda)的多哈談判包括一些對較貧窮國家至關重要的問題，例如限制美國和歐盟(EU)等富裕經濟體農業補貼的努力。