Brussels, 13/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - Following the latest two meetings, on 8 and 9 May, devoted to sensitive goods and tropical products, which are proving to be stumbling blocks, the chairman of the WTO Agricultural Negotiations committee, New-Zealander Crawford Falconer has promised a new compromise text for the end of the week, possibly 16 May, or the start of the week of 19 May. Delegations will then have a week to digest the proposed text. Falconer also said that several delegations had called for the new text to be assessed in the Agricultural Negotiations committee before it was discussed in the “horizontal procedure” which seeks to knot the threads between the agriculture and industrial goods (NAMA) chapters. In the French daily Les Echos, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said he still believed there would be a ministerial meeting in May, although most negotiators are thinking in terms of June or July. In the middle of last week, WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said it was unlikely that there would be a ministerial meeting in May given the state of progress. “To finish before the end of the year, there has to be agreement in May or June, because six or seven months are needed between political agreement and the end of the negotiating round. Beyond that, we will go into a red zone. The political and technical conditions are there for conclusion in 2008,” Lamy told Les Echos. “The stumbling block is the minor adjustments that need to be made with regard to the draft compromises. We are not there yet because the negotiators want to give a little less than they we authorised to give and to take a little more than they were asked to bring back,” he said. (E.H.)