Brussels, 11/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - Preparations are gearing up ahead of the meeting of some 30 Trade Ministers called to WTO headquarters in Geneva on 21 July to try to reach the broad lines of an agreement on liberalising trade in agricultural products and industrial goods as part of the Doha negotiations. Further technical level progress on 10 July followed the call for a compromise from G8 leaders at the Toyako Summit on 8 July (see EUROPE 9699). WTO mediators in the agricultural and industrial good (NAMA) talks, Crawford Falconer and Don Stephenson, on Thursday, published new versions of their compromise texts on trade liberalisation modalities in these to key chapters of negotiations. The previous versions of the texts were issued on 19 May (see EUROPE 9664). No major changes have been brought to the ranges of tariff reductions and subsidies in the new texts. According to Falconer, in agriculture, the latest consultations on revenue support decoupled from production (“green box”) have allowed virtually a final text to be reached. However, while progress has also been made on special products and the special safeguard mechanism, definitive agreement on these two chapters is far from being achieved. “Ministers in Geneva will need clear and detailed documents. These texts are broadly going in that direction,” said WTO Secretary General Pascal Lamy. Peter Powell, the spokesman for European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson welcomed “some positive steps” reflected in the latest versions of the compromise texts, while adding that “important gaps still need to be bridged”. “We are committed to this negotiation, but we need serious efforts from our negotiating partners to reach a balanced settlement,” he added. On the US side, Susan Schwab's spokeswomen Gretchen Hamel said that the United States was ready and wanted to make its contribution. It was time, she said, for leading developed countries to make market-opening offers “commensurate with their increasing participation and role in the world economy”. The leaders of the five major emerging countries (South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Mexico), who were invited to the G8 Summit, called on the developed countries to “dismantle their barriers and distorting measures, particularly subsidies and domestic agricultural support, which are hindering the efforts of developing countries”. EU Trade Ministers will meet in Brussels on 18 July to agree the EU position that Mandelson will take in Geneva. (E.H./transl.rt)