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UPDATE:UK Mandelson:Business Wants G20 To Take Steps On Trade

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LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The global business community wants the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations to tackle the economic crisis by concluding World Trade Organization talks, increasing trade finance and fighting protectionism, U.K. Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said Wednesday.

"People know that the world is not going to be changed in a day, but people do want to see serious vital next steps taken to make sure that the global economy and all that depends on it is properly restored to working order," he said, following a conference of business leaders from the G20 countries.

The meeting, which was held in partnership with the Confederation of British Industry, brought together representatives of business groups in the U.S., European Union, China and several other countries to discuss the economic crisis ahead of the G20 leaders' summit April 2 in London.

"I think business also wants to see proper regulatory reform of our banking sector so that we don't have a repeat of the crisis...that has triggered this very severe downturn in our economy," Mandelson said.

In a joint statement after the conference, Mandelson and CBI President Martin Broughton said the business leaders want an urgent commitment from G20 leaders to conclude the latest round of WTO talks as the best insurance policy against a retreat into protectionism.

"A successful Doha Round alone would insure against protectionist pressures that could cost the global economy as much as $170 billion a year," they said.

While falling demand was a factor, protectionism could be playing a part in the fall in trade, they said. As a result, businesses wanted the G20 to also focus on non-tariff measures, such as subsidies, anti dumping, and licensing restrictions.

"We also agreed it was important to make sure that the monitoring of adherence to these commitments has realty," the statement said.

Senior G20 officials have said they are seeking to toughen up oversight of member nations' pledges not to adopt protectionist measures. The most likely way of doing so would be through the WTO, but officials admit that agreeing a mechanism for doing so will be complex.

The call for an increase in trade finance echoed the broad consensus reached after a meeting of G20 finance ministers last weekend which aimed to lay the groundwork for the leaders' summit early next month.

"International and government institutions need to step in to substitute private flows of trade finance which have been drying up," Mandelson and Broughton said. "If left unchecked, this could restrain many hundreds of billions of dollars of global trade over the next two years."

-By Nicholas Winning and Laurence Norman, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9498; nick.winning@dowjones.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 18, 2009 14:13 ET (18:13 GMT)


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