Trade Travails
July 27, 2007
WTO negotiators should come back from the August summer break "ready to engage in intensive negotiations" on the Doha round, Lamy said in Geneva.
"We have already come a long way in this round, and the distance left to go is not so great but it will require extra efforts," he told the WTO's 150 members.
The WTO chief said the publication earlier this month of draft texts on liberalizing trade in agriculture and industrial goods had "significantly reinforced and intensified," discussions in Geneva.
Lamy said the texts allowed for "more concrete, intense and specific" negotiations in both sectors.
"It is important that everybody be fit and ready on the starting line at that time," said Lamy.
An "extra effort" was needed to clinch a WTO deal by the end of the year, he said, adding: "It means intensive work, knowing that there are no shortcuts."
US needs to slash trade subsidies
The new WTO proposals call for steep cuts in trade-distorting US farm subsidies by setting a ceiling for such hand-outs at between $13 billion and $16.4 billion, down from the current limit of about $22 billion. This is above the $10-billion to $11-billion ceiling demanded by Brazil and India but below the $17-billion level informally floated by the US.
The draft industrial goods agreement tabled in Geneva said developing countries should put a ceiling of 19-23 per cent on their tariffs, well below the 30 per cent demanded by Brazil and India.
This is the level, however, that European business groups say is necessary to improve access to emerging markets for their exporters.
Torturous negotiations
Disputes over farm trade liberalization have soured the Doha talks ever since their launch in the Qatari capital in November 2001.
The negotiations, aimed at breaking down barriers to trade in agriculture, industrial products and services, were suspended last summer after the US and the EU failed to agree on measures to open up farm trade.
Prospects for a deal faded even further last month after four of the WTO's largest trading powers --- the US, EU, India and Brazil -- failed to bridge differences at a meeting in Germany.
Russia may join WTO this year
Russia also said it hoped to conclude its 13-year-long WTO accession talks this year, according to Maxim Medvedkov, Russia's head negotiator.
"I hope, with the support of the WTO membership, it will be possible for Russia to complete the negotiations by the end of this year.... We think it is quite do-able," he told reporters.
None of the organization's major members, including the EU, the United States, India and China, commented on Medvedkov's statement, though some diplomats said Moscow's entry pact was in the advanced stages.