World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy warned Tuesday that long-standing negotiations for a global trade deal would miss a new 2010 deadline unless the pace is stepped up. "We are now one month into the work programme we devised collectively to be able to reach a successful conclusion by 2010. I think it would be fair to say that we have seen some progress," he told 153-member states of the trade group.
"But I also believe that it will be difficult to get to 2010 without a serious acceleration of the pace. We need to see real negotiations emerge, not only informal consultations and discussions," added the WTO director-general. The Doha round of negotiations began in 2001 in the Qatari capital but have been plagued by disagreements between developed and developing countries. In July, the Group of Eight industrialised nations and emerging economic powers had said that they wanted the faltering Doha Round of trade talks to wrap up next year.
Lamy said that a regular WTO meeting of trade ministers at the end of the year would be "an important platform for ministers to send a strong signal of commitment to concluding the Doha Development Round." However, he also stressed that the meeting to be held in Geneva between November 30 and December 2 would not be a negotiating session for the Doha round.
The last ministerial meeting involving the full membership of the WTO was held in Hong Kong in 2005, and failed to secure a breakthrough on Doha talks. Since Hong Kong, only ministers from major trading nations or those representing groupings have gathered to advance the negotiations.
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