Federal Labor is calling on Trade Minister Andrew Robb to push for a revival of the Doha-round trade talks at a special summit in Kenya.
Trade ministers are meeting in Nairobi for a World Trade Organisation conference from Tuesday to Friday.
"Multilateral trade liberalisation is too important for Australian businesses, jobs and the economy to fall victim to the Liberal Party's free trade agreement fixation," opposition trade spokeswoman Penny Wong said on Monday.
Mr Robb said while Australia remained committed to the global multilateral trading system the reality was the Doha-round would not be concluded in its current form.
"Multilateral trade outcomes are of course powerful drivers of global economic growth, stability and prosperity but history shows they are extremely difficult to achieve given the number of countries and interests involved," he told AAP.
Mr Robb will take the opportunity in Nairobi to canvass new approaches to global trade liberalisation.
He defended the government's actions on trade, citing the trifecta of agreements, saying Labor had wasted six years in office.
Despite securing individual agreements it was important not to desert the WTO process, because of its role in setting and fostering global trading rules.
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