WTO cannot address trade imbalances, but US not ready to exit, Greer says

The World Trade Organization is unable to deal with the core challenges of the global trading system, but the U.S. is not ready to leave the body, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Tuesday.

Greer, in a live interview on Bloomberg television, was asked whether Washington planned to quit the WTO after trade ministers meeting in Cameroon failed to agree on an extension of a moratorium on e-commerce duties and move forward with some basic reform steps.

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Greer responded. "I would just say that the ability of the World Trade Organization to meet the needs of the moment - addressing structural imbalances, currency issues, huge export-driven surplus by other countries - the WTO has never been able to address those things, and it won't be going forward. It can barely address issues on its current agenda."

'NEAR CONSENSUS' ON U.S. PROPOSALS

He said that the U.S. in Yaounde had put forward proposals about reforms, about criteria for determining which countries can access trade benefits for development, and about making sure that countries can adjust their tariff rates to meet core national interests. 

On this he said there was near consensus, but countries including Brazil and Turkey eventually opposed the package.

"It's also kind of 'Exhibit A' that the WTO is unable to address these core challenges," he said.

The WTO's e-commerce moratorium on digital transmission duties has lapsed after 28 years - three years less than the WTO's own age - and ministers were expected to resume talks to extend it in Geneva. 

Greer said late on Monday that if the moratorium was not extended, the U.S. would seek an alternative, plurilateral deal with "like-minded" countries to renew it in an effort to preserve U.S. technology innovation.