'Stars are aligning' for trade accord, Caterpillar's Lane says

The Obama administration is focusing more on trade than ever before, a sign that the World Trade Organization may be able to clinch a global commerce deal next year, said William Lane, an executive at Caterpillar Inc. Locally, Cat has operations in Montgomery.

"For the last year and a half, the U.S. took a proverbial timeout on trade," Lane, Washington director for Peoria, Illinois-Based Caterpillar, told journalists in Geneva today. "That's clearly starting to change. The train is beginning to move and 2011 is clearly doable. The stars are aligning."

Lane was part of a delegation of senior executives from companies including Philip Morris International Inc., Fedex Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and AT&T Inc. who met this week with WTO and government officials to gauge the status of global trade talks. They came away convinced that 2011 is the "window of opportunity" to reach an accord to break down barriers to global commerce, Christopher Wenk, the trade lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told journalists in Geneva today.

Next year will be a "big year" for trade in the U.S., Wenk said. President Barack Obama said on July 7 that his administration is increasing access to export financing for small and medium-sized U.S. businesses while removing barriers to trade. He also promised to work with South Korea, Panama and Colombia to retool pending free-trade agreements.

"There's a dramatic difference right now in the U.S. on the ability to move forward on trade," Wenk said.

'Substantive Discussions'While Group of 20 leaders meeting in Toronto last month stopped short of calling for completion of an accord by a certain date, the gathering was "the first time leaders got into substantive discussions" about the trade talks, Wenk said. WTO negotiations on a new accord have been dogged by clashes between developed and larger emerging economies since the talks began in late 2001.Businesses in Europe and the U.S. are seeking to give further impetus to the negotiations, he said. The U.S. Chamber and Business Europe, its European counterpart, will next week send a joint letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht saying more ambition is needed."What is on the table now is not enough to get political support in the States or elsewhere," Wenk said.