Businesses seek 'commercially meaningful' WTO deal

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA, June 26 (Reuters) - The global trade treaty shaping up in Geneva needs to include "commercially meaningful" tariff cuts to be palatable to major businesses, who warned against diluting a deal in the push to wrap it up next month.

In a rare joint statement, companies from United States, Europe, China, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand said they would only support a long-sought Doha round accord if it prises open new export markets for their goods.

"Reaching an ambitious conclusion to the round remains the number one global priority for business," the industry groups representing Procter & Gamble (PG.N), Unilever (UNc.AS), BASF (BASF.DE), Microsoft (MSFT.O) IBM (IBM.N) and others said.

They urged negotiators to resist yielding to developing country calls for permission to use protective tariffs to shield entire tranches of their industries from competition.

"All nations must meet the basic and primary goal of a global trade round, which is to achieve significant commercial gain for all WTO members in all markets through meaningful reductions of tariffs," the groups including the U.S.-based National Association of Manufacturers, Business Europe, and the Chinese National Federation of Industries said.

"Our support is conditional on the basis of an outcome that provides commercially meaningful new market access for industrial goods by reducing substantially or eliminating tariffs," they said, flexing their economic muscle.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy called on Wednesday for key ministers to meet from July 21 to broker a deal in the two most heated areas of the Doha round -- opening up markets for agricultural goods such as food and cotton, and for industrial products like clothing and cars.

The talks also cover services such as transport and banking.