Brussels - The world's 20 greatest powers (G20) must revive the moribund Doha round of talks on an international trade agreement to stave off the threat of protectionism sparked by the economic crisis, the head of the EU's executive said on Thursday. "We are seeing outside Europe big pushes for protectionism. .. It will destroy jobs and the possibility for growth in the global economy," Jose Manuel Barroso told journalists in Brussels.
"I hope the G20 will make it clear that we have to have as soon as possible a conclusion of the Doha trade talks, because the alternative would be very serious for the world," Barroso said after talks with Danish premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Rasmussen highlighted the danger of protectionism within the EU, calling on the European Commission to make sure that the 27-member bloc's rules on free trade were upheld.
Protectionism "would be the wrong answer to the current economic crisis, and here I see the commission as the guarantor of (EU) rules and the basic principles of the internal market," he said.
Alarm bells have rung in Europe in recent weeks over national calls in France and Spain, in particular, to support local car makers, with member states which specialize in manufacturing, such as the Czech Republic, warning that such schemes could endanger subsidiary factories on their territory.
Concerns have also been voiced over the so-called "Buy American" clauses in the recently-adopted US economic stimulus package.
The Doha round of trade talks, begun in the World Trade Organization in 2001, is aimed at liberalizing global trade flows, but appeared to collapse in July after a row between the US and major developing economies over agricultural import rules.
Subsequent attempts to revive the talks have so far been unsuccessful.
G20 leaders are set to meet in London on April 2 to discuss a global response to the world economic crisis.
