Brussels, 04/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, after the ministerial meeting of the OECD in Paris and just before the start of the mini-ministerial session of the WTO which started that afternoon, Commissioner Peter Mandelson took stock of a certain amount of “progress” and the possibility of finding “the basis for an agreement” on the important issue of the conversion of specific agricultural customs duty rates into equivalent ad valorem duty under trade negotiations on the Doha Round at the WTO. Disagreement on this highly technical issue may block the continuation of negotiations and endanger preparations for the ministerial conference in Hong Kong in December. “Discussions on this point [conversion of agricultural rates] are underway and progress has been made. We need to find the basis for an agreement, in order to include it in the negotiating machine in Geneva”, said Mr Mandelson, quoted by AFP. The new American trade representative (USTR), Rob Portman, also told journalists in Paris that the main players within the WTO were “very close” to on agreement on this.