Brussels, 18/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - After the let-down of the Davos Forum at the end of January, then the decision by WTO Director General Pascal Lamy not to hold a ministerial meeting at the end of March to take stock of negotiations since summer 2009, an agreement on the interminable Doha Round would now seem to depend on there being a political miracle. After two weeks of consultations from 1-12 March, the WT agriculture mediator David Walker will have only little progress to show the high-ranking official of WTO member states, who will look back on and assess Doha talks since the ministerial meeting in New Delhi in September 2009. He says that the latest consultations which took place against a background of problems have not revealed any real change of position. The only issue really debated was once again the special safeguard mechanism for developing countries, which was the cause of the disagreement between the United States and India. With regard to market access, members remain just as divided on the capping of import duties. There is, however, a glimmer of hope in that members appear to have determined to find a solution for cotton on the basis of a larger reduction in domestic aid than planned for the rest of the agricultural sector. There will be highly contact on this issue, thorny for the EU, and even more so for the United States, in the hope of promoting a compromise. (E.H./transl.rt)