US business urges Obama to chart new Doha course

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading U.S. business groups urged President Barack Obama to push for a change in the overall direction of long-running world trade talks and said it was more urgent now to stop the spread of protectionist measures than to finish a deal.

"We believe the direction of the negotiations needs to be reassessed. The negotiations cannot simply be picked up where they left off," the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Association of Manufacturers and Coalition of Services Industries said in a February 24 letter to Obama.

A copy was obtained by Reuters on Thursday.

"We believe the most pressing trade issue is to take immediate steps to stop the spread of protectionist measures fueled by the global economic slowdown," said the groups, whose members represent a broad cross-section of the business community that long have been the most forceful advocates for completing the seven-year-old Doha round talks.

A set of texts proposed in December by negotiating chairmen at the World Trade Organization "have produced a badly imbalanced result and we do not view them as the basis for advancing the negotiations," the business groups said.

"The Doha round cannot proceed, let alone succeed, until the negotiating texts are revised to provide balance and greater ambition from the advanced developing countries," they said, in a veiled jab at India, China and Brazil.

"Until all major participants recognize the round must provide reciprocity, balance and ambition, we do not see how there can be meaningful progress," the groups said.