Fresh ideas are circulating in renewed World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks on farming tariffs and subsidies, two of the biggest obstacles to a new accord on boosting global trade flows, the talks chairman said yesterday.
New Zealand ambassador Crawford Falconer, who chairs the WTO's agriculture negotiations, said he was satisfied with the current pace and tone of the negotiations, which restarted in Geneva last week after a month-long break.
"I think we are getting places," he told journalists at the trade body's Geneva headquarters.
While emphasising that new proposals had been discussed in informal groups, Mr Falconer said that the talks needed to start delivering in the coming weeks for the WTO's Doha accord to be wrapped up in a timely way.
"I think you would need to see tangible signs of movement by the end of October to have the confidence that you can go on and finish the job," he said.
The Doha round, named after the Qatari capital where it was launched in 2001, has struggled to overcome countries' reluctance to cut politically-sensitive farming subsidies and tariffs on agricultural and industrial goods.
WTO director-general Pascal Lamy has repeatedly urged countries to wrap up the talks by the end of this year to avoid having them run into the US presidential election year, when Washington is expected to have little flexibility to negotiate.
In an interview this week he said it should be possible to reach the "essential skeleton" of a Doha deal by the end of the year.
Talks on industrial goods, another hotly-contested area, are due to resume in part next week, although the most contentious topics will be tackled in October, according to a letter to negotiators from Canada's WTO ambassador, Don Stephenson, who chairs those talks. - (Reuters)
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