U.S. wary on Doha deal, World Bank says go for it

By Doug Palmer and Jonathan Lynn

WASHINGTON/GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States will not agree to a deal in world trade talks unless other countries make better offers to open their markets, two U.S. trade nominees said on Wednesday.

But a forthcoming study from the World Bank argued that proposals now on the table in the Doha round would bring huge gains to the world economy and World Trade Organisation members should stop quibbling over further concessions.

"I believe a good deal is doable. But we will not do a deal at any cost," Michael Punke, President Barack Obama's choice to be U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organisation, said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on his nomination.

"From my meetings and conversations with members (of Congress), with your staffs and with various stakeholder groups, I understand very clearly: No deal is better than a bad deal," Punke said in prepared remarks.

U.S. officials have made it clear they want big emerging countries like Brazil, India and China to open their markets more to American businesses for a deal to work.

But there are important benefits from a deal that locked in trade opening already undertaken unilaterally by countries, to prevent them reversing the moves as the crisis fuels protectionism, Bernard Hoekman, one of the authors of the World Bank study, told a presentation at the WTO.

Other major gains range from helping the environment -- boosting sustainable fisheries by cutting excessive subsidies and opening markets to trade in environmental technologies -- to making it easier for developing countries to trade more, said Hoekman, director of the bank's international trade department.

"The value of all this has been revealed to a much greater extent than was seen a few years ago as a result of the crisis," Hoekman said.