Brussels, 17/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 16 September, Pascal Lamy informed the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that “in the next few weeks” he would be ready to bring together in Geneva trade ministers from WTO countries in order to definitively tie up an agreement on trade liberalisation modalities and conclude the Doha Round. Everything will depend on the progress accomplished in Geneva by negotiators, who resumed work last week, to resolve differences like the special safeguard mechanism (SSM) and pending questions like cotton and tariff simplification. The WTO director general affirmed that “the reasons why we must conclude the Round are becoming more critical by the day as the economic and financial outlook continues to deteriorate”. Lamy remains convinced that the July ministerial helped create substantial progress despite its failure over differences on the safeguard mechanism on agricultural imports from developing countries (EUROPE 9714). He insisted that “there is now too much on the table, particularly for developing countries, to give up”. Last week, G7 negotiators (Australia, Brazil, China, US, India, Japan and the EU) met to make progress on the stumbling blocks, particularly the SSM. Discussions are expected to continue this week. On 15 September, the European commissioner for trade, Peter Mandelson, appealed for another ministerial to be held in the autumn (EUROPE 9741). On 16 September, in an interview with La Tribune at the end of his meeting with his French counterpart, Anne-Marie Idrac, in Delhi, the Indian minister for trade, Kamal Nath, expressed scepticism about the chances of relaunching discussions due to the forthcoming elections in the US and India. Mr Nath reaffirmed, however, that there is “no question of India accepting compromises on the question of food safety”. He also pointed out that the question of cotton had not yet been tackled and added that “only technical discussions are taking place with no ministerial meeting planned”. His colleague at the department of industry, Ashwani Kumar, did not appear any more optimistic and declared: “Unfortunately, I don't see how any one party can set any timetable because everybody will have to make concessions. In an election year we all know that governments do not make concessions”. At the EU trade ministers' meeting on 15 September in Brussels, Ms Idrac also said that the chances of negotiations starting up again soon were very small, despite the launch of technical discussions in Geneva: “It is extremely doubtful that technical talks will be able to fill the political divide observed last July”. (E.H./transl.rh)