Trade talks to go on after Doha - Australia/Chile

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia and Chile, two of the world's major resource exporters, said on Wednesday that global trade talks would go on after the collapse of a deal in Geneva and some medium-sized nations could form a new negotiating front.

"We certainly in Geneva last week realised that there is a tremendous convergence among certain countries, Australia is one of the most prominent, and New Zealand and Canada and Korea and Singapore, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica," said Chile's Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley during a visit to Australia.

"There is something to be said that a group of countries like this should go ahead in trying to generate a result, better certainly that the one that was not achieved in Geneva," Foxley said while signing a free trade pact with Canberra.

Marathon talks on a new global trade pact collapsed on Tuesday as the United States and India failed to overcome an impasse over a proposal to help poor farmers deal with imports.

World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy said success would eventually have saved the world economy $130 billion a year just in lower tariffs.

Australia's Trade Minister Simon Crean said failure to reach a deal was "an opportunity missed" that could hurt his country's $1 trillion export-reliant economy.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australia would let the dust settle on global talks and then try to work a way forward.

"With world trade talks, the job is never done. It's deeply disappointing, but we know that both Chile and Australia will be at the vanguard and the forefront of continuing to try to push the international community," Smith told reporters.