Deputy US trade representative Richard Fisher said the World TradeOrganisation (WTO) talks beginning on November 30 in Seattle shouldconcentrate on improving market access and not get bogged down incontroversial labour, investment or competition issues. Fisher told asatellite news conference from Washington to four Asian cities that thetalks, expected to last three years, "should not go on forever" or be"hopelessly complicated". "The Millennium Round should not take a millenniumto negotiate. It has to be manageable in a timeframe," he said.

The WTO trade talks, the first since the Uruguay Round of trade negotiationsended in 1993, aim to free up trade around the world and cut tariffs andremove non-tariff barriers to business.

"The first emphasis should be on enhanced market access," Fisher said,adding that liberalising markets for agricultural products and servicesshould be at the core of the talks.

Assuring journalists in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Jakarta thatdeveloping nations would gain from free trade, Fisher said the WTO needed tobecome "more user-friendly for developing nations". An ever larger share ofdeveloping nations' output was exported, aligning their interests with thegoal of free trade.

The United States also committed to the principle of "special anddifferential treatment" for developing economies. But he stressed thisshould not be used an excuse for countries to renege on existing commitmentsto open markets. Opponents of liberalisation "should not get an `easyoff'".

"Our concern is that those that have least interest in liberalising...willtry to muck up the agenda," he said. "We would not be in favour of providinga blanket ability to just walk away from commitments," he said.

Asked whether the United States would try to bring the issue of labourstandards to the WTO negotiations, Fisher said he believed the link betweenlabour standards and trade should be considered.

"The United States is simply proposing that a study be done over perhaps twoyears," he said. "We are not trying to impose some device that essentiallybecomes some protectionist device."

Developing countries have accused the West in the past of trying to imposetrade barriers on poorer nations through the back door by requiring levelsof wages, worker rights and other standards that are more easily met byricher nations. The United States has rejected a suggestion by Europe thatthe WTO should try to agree a new multi-lateral investment pact.

"I think that that, injected into this current round, would be verydisruptive," Fisher said.

The WTO should also not get derailed by competition policy. "Again, we wantto make sure competition policy is not something that is used to distract usfrom the task at hand." "This an area, I think, that we still need to workout. Our fear is that by raising investment and competition policy wherethere is not unanimous agreement that it should be a part of the exercisemay prove a distraction."

Welcoming a deal between the United States and China that should pave theway for China's membership soon of the WTO, Fisher said China needed to bepart of the global negotiations.

"It is better for all of us that it (China) is part of a rules-based system,rather than just an arbitrary force and a loose cannon rolling about on thedeck."