Strasbourg, 10/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - Speaking from Canberra, where he met Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Trade Minister Simon Crean on Tuesday 9 February, Director General of the WTO Pascal Lamy has stressed his optimism on the prospects of concluding the Doha round in the course of this year. "It is certainly feasible", he told the press. The chilly reception from the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the absence of the American Trade Representative Ron Kirk did much to reinforce the doubts of the ministers present (South Africa, Australia, Brazil, India, Japan and the EU, amongst others) as to the actual level of commitment of the United States in favour of the round, has not dented the optimism of the WTO boss, who sees grounds for hope in the State of the Union address given in early January by American President Barack Obama. "I believe that anybody who paid attention to the part of the State of the Union speech on trade will have been struck by its positive tone. It is true that the internal political situation remains problematic", said Lamy, who added that negotiations are still running into difficulties on just 20% of the subjects covered by the Doha round, after modest progress in 2009. "This probably owes much to what remains to be done as regards reducing customs duty on industrial products and, in certain cases, on agricultural products, in particular as regards the developing countries. I believe this is what we should be focusing on at the moment (...). At a technical level, as an expert with some experience of trade negotiations, I can tell you that it is certainly feasible", the WTO head stressed.
High-level civil servants from the main commercial powers which are members of the WTO will meet again in Geneva at the end of March to take stock of progress made, with the aim of determining whether an agreement is possible by the end of the year. The mediator for the plank of negotiations on industrial products (NAMA), the Swiss ambassador to the WTO Luzius Wasescha, on Monday 8 February reported that a "useful discussion" had been held last week on the issue of priority non-tariff barriers, particularly for the automotive, electronics, remanufactured products, textiles labelling, clothing, shoes and travel items sectors, and on the subject of the horizontal mechanism for preventing and resolving disputes. (E.H./transl.fl)