Brussels, 24/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - During a visit to Washington on Tuesday, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said in a speech to the US Chamber of Commerce that American leadership would be decisive to the success or otherwise of the Doha Round. Many countries were awaiting a commitment from the United States to bring progress in the deadlocked talks on the agriculture section, he said, noting that “signals coming out of Washington on the extension of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA, the power to negotiate granted to the Bush administration by the US Congress) and on the shaping of the new Farm Bill (the US agricultural law) … are read with great attention by trade negotiators around the world, and especially in Geneva”. “Many US trade partners consider that no movement on TPA means that the US has lost faith in the Doha Round,” Mr Lamy went on to say, before adding, “The exercise of this leadership by the Administration and Congress in the weeks and months ahead will be the key to the fate of the Round. At this critical juncture in the negotiations, the WTO urgently needs their full support”. (eh)