Australia’s Trade Minister Dr Craig Emerson expressed his hope on Monday that the much-delayed Doha Development Round of multilateral trade negotiations would be concluded during 2011, and that it would also be a better a year for global trade.

Addressing delegates at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII’s) Partnership Summit 2011, in Mumbai, India, Emerson argued that the benefits that could accrue from an “ambitious and extensive” conclusion of the World Trade Organisation talks would be significant.

“We have now been negotiating the Doha Round for ten years, and there is no doubt in my mind that the improving prosperity we have all experienced over the most of these ten years has led to a degree of complacency,” he said at the gathering, whose theme was a ‘New Partnership for Economic Resurgence: The Global Imperative’.

CII president Hari Bhartia said that very little progress had been made on the Doha Round, and emphasised that what the world needed was a new level of partnership in which global trade would seek to not only stimulate economic growth, but also alleviate the world’s challenges, such as poverty.

India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma, who is also the CII chairperson, said that a rule-based multilateral trade regime was needed, through which poor and developing countries should benefit.

Emerson said that the economic crisis was a reminder that markets could be susceptible to manipulation and could be “cruelly and violently volatile”, which meant there was place for prudent regulation.

But he also argued strongly for a multilateral deal and for creeping protectionism to be curtailed. “While there is a role for bilateral and regional trade agreements, it is multilateralism which brings the greatest benefits for all. This is because the more free and open a market is, the more prosperity it produces. Global prosperity and security can only be based on a global trading system and a global market.”

But on bilateral relations, he said that Australia and India should not rest on their laurels and should look forward to improvements in welfare with further economic reforms. Australia continued to engage constructively with India, and would seek to expand economic cooperation well beyond raw materials.

Sharma indicated that the India-Australia Joint Ministerial Group Meeting would be held soon and that it would coincide with a CEOs Forum Meeting.

The two countries would also discuss the possibility of a free trade agreement, which he said had the potential to enhance trade in goods, services and boost investment between the two countries.