Brussels, 26/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - Addressing the European Parliament international trade committee, which is chaired by Vital Moreira (S&D, Portugal), on Tuesday 23 February, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy set out this year's priorities for his multilateral organisation which governs world trade. Despite still too slight progress in reducing the differences between the 153 member countries since the New Delhi meeting in September 2009, concluding Doha Round negotiations remains Lamy's principle objective. However, he declined to hold a ministerial meeting at the end of March to take stock (see EUROPE 10084). “Despite very strong headwinds, last year we managed to keep the boat sailing,” said the former trade commissioner Lamy, hailing the agreement - crucial for the Doha Round - between the EU and Latin America ending the long-lasting banana conflict. Encouraged by the resistance offered by the WTO and the multilateral trade system to the biggest crisis since 1945, Lamy expressed the hope that the Doha Round can be taken “to the endgame” in 2010. Within a global context of recovery from the crisis, preventing protectionism was another of the WTO priorities for 2010. Hailing the efforts made by countries in 2009 to keep their markets open, Lamy said he hoped that there would be no change of direction in 2010, all the more so since, he said, the threat of economic recovery without any job creation remains strong. SMEs and some regions of the world, such as Africa, need special attention, he also noted. Answering questions put by Georgios Papastamkos (EPP, Greece), Yannick Jadot (Greens/EFA, France) and Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL, Germany) on agriculture and food safety, Lamy indicated that the political reality was that the United States and the EU would continue with their farm subsidies, and that the Doha Round agriculture chapter would “remain full of specificities”. He also argued that opening agricultural trade was necessary if the problems of food safety were to be resolved. He expressed his satisfaction that the Parliament's powers in the area of international trade had been increased under the Lisbon Treaty. This, he said, would strengthen the hand of the EU in trade negotiations and make talks more democratic; but it would also mean greater responsibility for MEPs, he added. (E.H./transl.rt)