Brussels, 11/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - In an interview with Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore of 10 November, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy calls for “faster progress” in Doha talks, especially from the United States, so that the Round can be concluded in 2010. “The G20 summit in Pittsburgh brought fresh impetus, the mix is simmering nicely, but I don't know if it will be ready to put on the table by the end of 2010. … We would like to see faster progress, but we realise that in international negotiations time does not always adapt to need,” he said. Developed and emerging economies pledged at the G8 Summit in L'Aquila in July, then again at a trade ministers' meeting in New Delhi in September, to conclude the Doha Round before the end of 2010. However, despite progress made in the two main chapters of the talks - agriculture and manufactured goods (NAMA) - at the WTO ministerial meeting in July 2008, the negotiations, which were launched in 2001, have come up against two major stumbling blocks: the special safeguard mechanism for agriculture in developing countries, which sees the US and India at loggerheads, and sectoral agreements on industrial goods, which have brought the industrialised powers, led by EU and the US, into opposition with the major emerging economies, championed by Brazil, China and India. To take the talks forward, Lamy urges the United States to go beyond its domestic political agenda. “In 2008, the United States was slow in coming to a clearly articulated negotiating position. It was said that the last year of an administration was not a good time, and time would be required for the new administration to get up and running in the first year. The problem is that, in 2010, there will be mid-term elections (Ed: to elect part of the US Congress). In short, world trade, which has been successful in avoiding the wave of protectionism that the economic cycle could bring, has not managed to escape from the American political cycle,” he regretted. (E.H./transl.rt)