Doha Round negotiators face ‘last chance’ to salvage talks

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WASHINGTON , Oct 21 (AFP): WT0 head Pascal Lamy yesterday warned that international negotiators now faced their last chance to reach a global trade deal and said they had just "a few weeks" to agree on the outlines of an accord.
"The hour of truth is very rapidly approaching the Doha trade round," Lamy told International Monetary Fund policymakers, referring to currently deadlocked talks to tear down trade barriers launched in the Qatari capital six years ago.
The negotiations, held under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation, have foundered largely on demands by developing countries that their farm products be given greater access to markets in the industrialised world.
Rich countries are in turn pressing developing nations to accept more of their industrial goods and services.
Lamy said that "within the next few weeks" WTO members had to "come to closure on the political deal to liberalise trade in agricultural and industrial products and trade in services."
"It is probably our last chance to move this round to a successful conclusion," Lamy told the 24-member IMF steering committee, appealing to members to "help political leaders rise above the many doubts and difficulties over details" that have so far held up progress.
Despite what he described as a daily flow of negative headlines about the Doha Round, Lamy said he had detected positive movement since his appearance before the committee in April.
But in Geneva Friday, the chief negotiator guiding talks on farm trade, Crawford Falconer, said a negotiating drive launched last month had not bridged gaps in "a number of areas."