Fears of rising protectionism are dominating negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on new trade rules, with countries calling for measures against cheap imports and subsidies to be tightened to prevent abuse.

A week of negotiations on fisheries subsidies, countervailing duties on unfair subsidies, and anti-dumping duties on goods exported for less than they cost at home closed on Thursday with big gaps still evident on anti-dumping steps.

"Given the unprecedented economic crisis and a potential rise in protectionist sentiment, WTO members need to be aware of a possible increase in anti-dumping actions and to avoid the unwarranted use of such measures," Japan's WTO ambassador, Shinichi Kitajima, told negotiators.

Japan is spearheading resistance at the WTO to a controversial U.S. method of calculating anti-dumping measures known as zeroing which critics say artificially inflates compensatory duties, putting up barriers to trade.

Kitajima's comments, in a text made available to Reuters, were made on behalf of an alliance of developed and developing countries known as the "Friends of Anti-Dumping" at the negotiations, part of the WTO's Doha round to open up trade.

IMPORT BLOCKS

Many countries fear that other WTO members will take advantage of existing trade rules to block their imports to protect jobs at home, while also fearing that the crisis will prompt countries to use subsidies to sell goods cheaply.

On Saturday the European Union imposed anti-dumping duties of 85 percent on screws and bolts from China, denying the move was protectionist. Chinese manufacturers have asked Beijing to challenge the move at the WTO.

China itself is the target of a challenge launched at the WTO in December by the United States and Mexico over export subsidies, while many developing countries say stimulus packages planned by industrialised nations amount to hidden subsidies.

The talks were the first review by WTO members of a negotiating text issued in December by the chairman of the talks, Uruguay's WTO ambassador Guillermo Valles Galmes, who made it clear members would have to work intensively to reach agreement as current differences were too big for compromises.

Thursday's discussion exposed a continuing wide rift over zeroing, which is opposed by all of the WTO's 153 members bar the United States.

Zeroing has been the subject of a dozen disputes at the WTO, and the United States lost another appeal at the trade body on Wednesday. [ID:nL4279022]

But in Thursday's negotiations the United States insisted that zeroing must be part of any rules agreement.

Talks on subsidies on Wednesday were also coloured by concern about protectionism, with China and Mexico calling for stricter controls of countervailing duties on subsidies, according to a participant in the session.

Big differences also remain on fisheries subsidies, where the challenge is to balance the need for development to help millions of small-scale fishermen in countries like India with measures to prevent overfishing to protect the environment.

Oceana, a group that campaigns to preserve the seas and fish stocks, said in a report on Monday that the WTO was in a key position to help ensure the long-term viability of the world's fisheries, and said U.S. President Barack Obama had an opportunity to use the Doha round to help the environment.

"The Obama Administration can bring a renewed sense of urgency to the Doha round. Without fast action in the Doha round, effective limits on subsidies might come too late to reverse the drastic declines we are seeing in the world's fish populations," said senior campaign director Courtney Sakai.