Marseilles, 29/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - The president of the WTO agricultural negotiations committee, New Zealand Ambassador Crawford Falconer, has begun new consultations in Geneva to assess what agricultural issues should be reactivated and in what order, in view of resuming ministerial level talks, following the failure of the Geneva meeting last July (EUROPE 9714). The task of the agricultural ombudsman at the WTO will be facilitated in the event of progress at discussions taking place at the same time between the 7 big trade powers: Australia, Brazil, China, US, India, Japan and the European Union), which are still exploring (at senior civil servant level) ways of settling the dispute over the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM). On 16 September, WTP director general, Pascal Lamy, said he was prepared to organise another ministerial meeting in the next few weeks to definitively put together an agreement on trade liberalisation modalities and conclude the Doha Round. Everything hinges on progress made by negotiators at Geneva and who resumed their work at the beginning of September to tackle differences such as the SSM and other pending questions such as cotton and tariff simplification. The Swiss Ambassador to the WTO, Luzius Wasescha, is expected, after confirmation by members this week, to be appointed president of the negotiating committee on industrial products (NAMA) and effectively replace Don Stephenson
from Canada. (E.H./trans/rh)