Major trading powers, which are spending more energy on bilateral deals than on the push for a global agreement, may give up for good on WTO unless a deal to facilitate cross-border trade is reached at the upcoming ministerial conference in Bali.

Moreover, trade experts fear that a pull-out by the major players could foster the growth of rival trading blocs and deepen divisions, contrary to what the WTO(World Trade Organisation) was meant to achieve.

International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB)made the remarksin an editorial published in its news bulletin On Thursday.

The three-day 9th WTO biannual ministerial conference is scheduled to take place in the Indonesian island of Bali from December 3-6.

The ICCB editorial says reaching a deal at the Bali conference would not only be an opportunity to slash the cost of shipping goods around the world, it could also be the last chance to restore confidence in the WTOs ability to reform global trade rules.

“For the past 60 years, trade has been a driver of growth and employment. This engine of the world economy is threatened by the stalemate in multilateral trade negotiations,” the editorial says.

Furthermore, increasing trade and investment restrictions, fuelled by a worldwide economic downturn, is damaging business climate and prospects for recovery at a time when global trade and investment liberalisation could provide a much-needed boost to world economic growth, it says.

An agreement on trade facilitation should significantly reduce costs, speed up and streamline administrative and other official procedures, as well as create a more transparent, predictable and efficient environment for cross-border trade.

Trade facilitation is a series of measures whereby countries reduce red tape and simplify customs and other procedures for handling goods at borders.

A WTO trade facilitation agreement would, thus, add significant momentum to these initiatives, leading to even greater reductions in trade costs.

At the ICC World Trade Agenda Summit held in Doha in April this year, several hundred business leaders and trade experts considered a set of recommendations, finalised by the ICC on behalf of global business for WTO member countries, to salvage parts of on-going Doha trade negotiations that could heighten global GDP by $960bn.

The meeting observed that by simplifying customs procedures alone through trade facilitation measures member countries would generate 21m global jobs, with developing countries gaining more than 18m jobs and developed countries increasing their workforce by 3m.

It is estimated that the payoff from liberalising trade in services could generate world trade gains of $1.1tn, which would translate into global employment gains of 9m jobs.