Brussels, 02/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - At the end of the first day of discussions in the NAMA (non-agricultural market access) negotiating group, the member countries have not seen any tangible progress on the dossier of tariffs applied to industrial products. According to a diplomatic source, this lack of progress is largely down to the reluctance of certain developing countries which contest the developed countries' demands in terms of access to industrial markets. The draft compromise on industrial tariffs proposed by the chairman of the NAMA negotiating group, Don Stephenson, rests on a “Swiss formula” with two separate coefficients for reducing tariffs which are applicable to rich countries and countries in advanced development, with the coefficients set at between 8 and 9 for the former and between 19 and 23 for the latter (EUROPE 9471). However, while the developed countries are demanding a tariff-reduction coefficient of 15 (compared to 10 for themselves) applicable to developing countries, certain emerging countries led by South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and India (under the banner “NAMA-11”) are refusing to go below a coefficient of 30 applicable to themselves. However, as we have observed (EUROPE 9456), the emerging countries are not presenting a wholly united front, as China has welcomed Mr Stephenson's draft compromise and Chile, Mexico and Singapore, leading a group of 8 countries, have already declared themselves open to giving more ground on industrial tariffs than the NAMA-11 countries. The latter group are also still demanding progress on the agricultural dossier, negotiations on which are not due to resume until 8 October. Although he expects the NAMA talks to intensify in the course of October, Mr Stephenson is not envisaging a revised text of his reference document (published 17 July) before the end of the month. (eh)