NUSA DUA (Indonesia), Dec 3: The WTO’s chief on Tuesday warned it was “now or never” as trade ministers opened a conference tasked with salvaging long-stalled efforts to liberalise trade and ensure the body’s continued relevance.

Roberto Azevedo implored delegates to reach a modest agreement on key trade issues on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, in hopes it will keep alive the stumbling 12-year-old drive to slash international trade barriers.

“We cannot put this off for another day,” he told trade ministers from around the world shortly after the four-day meeting opened.

“It is now or never.”

The WTO launched the “Doha Round” of talks in Qatar in 2001, seeking to overhaul the world trading system by setting a global framework of rules and tearing down barriers.

Various estimates say it could create tens of millions of jobs and perhaps $1 trillion in new economic activity.

But protectionist disputes between rich and poor countries — as well as the WTO’s insistence that any accord be unanimous — has made a deal elusive.

Retreating for now from Doha’s lofty aims, the WTO has instead put forward a limited “Bali package” on specific issues, hoping an agreement on those measures can keep the Doha Round on life-support for a later push.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ceremonially opened the ministerial conference, which is held roughly every two years, by striking a kul-kul, a cylindrical wooden Balinese gong, with a mallet. “All of us must find more flexibility for the good of the WTO, for the good of our economies, and for the good of our peoples around the world,” Yudhoyono said.

But even the Bali measures have hit snags, most notably India’s insistence that it be allowed to offer subsidies to its millions of poor farmers to keep food prices down.

“We can no longer allow the interests of our farmers to be compromised at the altar of mercantilist ambitions of the rich,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who leads India’s delegation, was quoted as saying on Monday by Indian media.—AFP