The talks collapsed last July but were revived again in January. While China wasn't part of that original group since it wasn't yet part of the WTO, experts said America's second-largest trading partner has since become an active participant in the discussions.
Moreover, analysts said, the clock is ticking for the Bush administration to get a breakthrough this time before the July 1 expiration of the so-called fast-track authority that allows the president to speed trade deals through Congress for a yea or nay vote without considering any amendments.

Without it, Griswold said other countries lose the incentive to hammer out trade deals with Washington because of concerns that Congress would alter the agreements. In other words, the fast-track provision and the trade talks are intertwined. You can't have one without the other, he said.

The United States wants to boost exports of homemade goods from ball bearings to shoes, from corn to financial services. Major trading partners like the EU, India and other countries also want greater access to U.S.

food and other markets. But they're unwilling, in the eyes of the American negotiators, to open up their markets to U.S.

firms.

Although an agreement on agriculture is critical for the negotiations to succeed, Griswold said there's much more at stake than haggling over prices for farm products.
It's a perversity to think that the Doha trade talks are just about agricultural products.

They're not, he said, adding that an agreement on farm trade would become a catalyst to easing trade restrictions in manufactured goods and services as well.
Said Griswold, The world economy is less productive than it should be. U.

S. companies don't sell as much abroad because of [trade] tariffs and barriers.
To his point, the U.

S. trade deficit last year jumped 6.5 percent to a record $763.

6 billion as Americans' appetite for foreign-made goods again outpaced exports of homemade goods.
Some economists argue that the deepening deficit is a drag on the country's economic growth since surging imports displace domestic production - and jobs. According to the Labor Department, the United States has lost nearly 3.

5 million manufacturing jobs since 1998.
If the Doha talks fail, it doesn't only mean that more barriers are likely to go up - but also that existing ones won't come down. That becomes a one-two punch for U.

S. consumers and producers.
Consumers will continue to pay prices higher than they should on imported products like sugar, rice, clothing, footwear and cars, and manufacturers will lose out on market opportunity abroad, Griswold said.

Nariman Behravesh, chief economist with Global Insight, an economic and financial forecasting firm, agreed. It's the equivalent of throwing sand in the gear and slowing down the process of globalization, said Behravesh.
'In general, opening up trade lowers prices and gives people savings that they wouldn't have had otherwise, said Behravesh.

On the export side, trade limitations also mean lost sales and jobs for manufacturers.