Trade negotiators meeting in Geneva are looking at accepting a mini trade deal in order to ward off sounding the death knell for the global free trade accord known as the Doha round by December 2011.

The Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy, has suggested focusing on a smaller package for December’s ministerial meeting to at least help the lesser developed countries and stem the rise in protectionism. But the mini-deal includes many of the same provisions that have blocked the Doha talks on opening world trade for almost a decade.

Developing countries are demanding that the US and EU nations cut their agricultural subsidies, a demand that is unacceptable in the United States as it heads into an election year.  It was in recognition of the fact that the US stance was unlikely to change until after November 2012, that Pascal Lamy began floating the idea of a smaller trade package.  

But World Bank President Robert Zoellick came to Geneva to urge world leaders to continue focusing on the big picture of the Doha round saying that the mini-deal would be as hard to achieve as the big deal.

“A mini-deal won’t do much for global growth, which is my primary concern,” said Zoellick, an expert on the Doha talks, having failed to conclude a trade agreement during his four years as the US chief trade negotiator under former President George W. Bush.

The Doha round was launched in Qatar in 2001 with the intention of making the benefits of free trade from rich Western countries available to poor nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia. But attempts to open up markets and end protectionist practices foundered after disagreements among the big five players: the US, EU, India, Brazil and China.

Zoellick wants WTO to think big again and he called on the Obama administration to exert the leadership role of the United States. “If US negotiators wait for the US Congress to tell them it’s OK to close a deal, they’ll wait for a long time.”