Brussels, 04/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - On visit to Canberra, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy told the press, on Tuesday 3 March, of his wish to finalise an agreement to seal the Doha Round during a ministerial meeting this summer.
Doha talks, that have been in impasse since the stalled talks of July 2008, and which are continuing at technical level in Geneva, can only resume at political level once the new US administration has decided on the broad lines of its trade policy and India has organised parliamentary elections for April/May, Mr Lamy explained, confirming that the G20 summit in London on 2 April could set conditions for resuming discussions. The latter are blocked because of persisting disagreement over the special safeguard mechanism for developing countries regarding agriculture and sectoral agreements in the chapter on industrial goods.
The next few weeks could be decisive for the Round, with a long awaited visit in March by Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton to Washington for talks with the Obama administration and its new trade representative, Ron Kirk, whose nomination should be confirmed by the Senate next week.
On the European side, the EU27 heads of state and government undertook on 1 March to do everything possible to reach consensus on arrangements for concluding the Round as soon as possible, and American President Barack Obama admitted, on 2 March, that a multilateral round would be a “major contribution” to solving the global economic crisis. He underlined, however, the need to correct imbalances in the talks underway in favour of American workers, business and farmers. (E.H./transl.jl)