WTO needs reform: ActionAid

NEW DELHI: The failure of World Trade Organisation talks is not a disaster but gives a historic opportunity for much needed reforms of the trade body, civil society organisation ActionAid has said.

Welcoming the collapse of the world trade talks in Geneva, ActionAid said, the hypocrisy of the USA preaching for withdrawal of subsidies everywhere and practicing the opposite for itself now stands exposed.

It said there must now be root-and-branch reform of the WTO if it is to be a force for good in the world, rather than a forum for the rich to exploit the poor. "We now have an opportunity for a People's Trade Organisation to be set up and all people of South Asia must come together immediately," it said in a release.

Meanwhile, CUTS international suggested that Pascal Lamy should also take initiative and come out with a forward looking text to break the deadlock. CUTS said during the Uruguay Round the then WTO chief Arthur Dunkel had also produced the Dunkel draft, which revived the trade talks.