Bilateral agreements ‘dangerous’

AS the multilateral world trade talks remain stalled, a former head of the World Trade Organisation has warned that bilateral agreements which are being negotiated between countries are a “dangerous phenomenon”.

Mike Moore, a former New Zealand prime minister, said bilaterals are not free-trade but preferential-trade agreements.

He said the stalemate in the global round he helped launch in 2001 in Doha, Qatar, was “very serious” and required political will to resolve.