Brussels, 01/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - In a speech on trade policy at the Annual Conference of the Association of British Bankers, Catherine Ashton stressed the need to concentrate in future, in post-Doha Round multilateral negotiations, on removing non-tariff barriers to trade. "Reducing tariffs is a mathematical exercise that involves the use of complex formulae. The future for multilateral trade is more relationship-centred. Future gains will come from identifying the non-tariff barriers that stifle trade in goods, but particularly in services. These are harder to spot and getting rid of them requires an altogether different approach. Rich, textured, enduring relationships built on trust become a key commodity in this scenario. The EU needs to continue to develop its problem-solving dialogues with countries like China and the US. Russia should continue to be encouraged to join the WTO and we need to build a network of relationships with not only India, Brazil, Canada and Australia, but a broad spectrum of countries across the globe", said the European Trade Commissioner. Non-tariff barriers include quotas, import licence regimes, sanitary rules and prohibitions: all measures which, when set in place behind national borders, create obstacles to trade. (E.H./trans.fl)