Brussels, 22/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - To see the commitment made by G20 leaders in Seoul at the start of November become reality, the 153 WTO member countries are determined to speed the laborious multilateral Doha negotiations up at the beginning of the new year in order to try to conclude the talks, which began 10 years ago, by the end of the year. Alongside the technical discussions in Geneva, which will step up a gear in the first quarter, clear signals of the political will to conclude the Round are expected in January.
Seizing the opportunity offered by the US desire to conclude. On the sidelines of the Transatlantic Economic Council in Washington on 17 December, European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said he was optimistic about the United States' desire to conclude the Doha Round. He told a Peterson Institute seminar that it was clear that the United States really wanted to complete Doha, referring to the assurances he had received at the EU-US Summit in Lisbon at the end of November. He added that it was not easy to make commitments when unsure of partners' desire to conclude. He said that this new situation should make future discussions on concluding the Round by the end of 2011 easier. Well aware that speeded up resumption of negotiations in response to the call from the G20 depends first and foremost on the political will of the Round's major players, De Gucht intends to convene a meeting of the G5 (EU, US, China, Brazil and India) trade ministers, plus those of Australia and Japan, in Brussels probably around 20 January, just before the Davos economic forum to test the strength of the joint desire to reach a conclusion.
Lamy calls on negotiators to move out of their comfort zone. WTO Director General Pascal Lamy also wants to see fresh impetus given to negotiations which, while making progress on the technical level, have remained deadlocked politically since the failure of the ministerial meeting in Geneva in July 2008. “We are at the point where we must have negotiators, and all negotiators have to be prepared to move out of their comfort zones towards agreement” on all the issues covered by the Doha Round, Lamy told the WTO General Council on 14 December. The time was past, he said, for a priori red lines to be set. “All members must be in a position to engage into substance on a 'without prejudice' basis, under the single undertaking,” he said. In addition to confirmation of political impetus at Davos at the end of January, Lamy is hoping for new revised compromise texts in all chapters of negotiations - agriculture, manufactured goods (NAMA) and services - for the end of the first quarter of 2011. New Zealand Ambassador to the WTO David Walker, who is the mediator in the most sensitive issue, agriculture, where the special safeguard mechanism for developing countries remains the major point to be settled, has convened a meeting of delegations in Geneva in mid-January. Walker is seeking a final agreement on agriculture by some time around June, which would leave member countries six or seven months to turn their provisions into commitments. (E.H./transl.rt)