MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

WTO misses April agreement, “but we're not in deadlock”

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) admitted Monday that plans for a major meeting this week will not be met but “we are not in deadlock”.

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy following an earlier meeting with heads of delegations in Geneva said that he was enthusiastic since "genuine and important progress has been made", although "not fast enough to allow us to reach agreement on modalities by the end of the month".

WTO had hoped to agree proposals to cut farm and industrial goods tariffs by a deadline at the end of April but differences between major players in the negotiations remained too large.

"It's not good news but we have to face reality", added Mr. Lamy who urged the 149 members of WTO members to keep working towards an agreement on tariffs thus enabling the group to stick to its deadline of concluding the so-called Doha round by the end of 2006.

"It is absolutely imperative to organise this in an intensive, continuous and effective way if we are to make up for lost time and fulfil our ultimate deadline of concluding the round this year".

The Doha round - which began in the Qatar capital in 2001 - aims to agree a "roadmap" for a global trade treaty by early 2007 at the latest.

Timing is particularly tight for any agreement in the round as the US government has only been granted "fast track" negotiating authority by Congress until July 2007.

"Fast track" or trade promotion authority means that Congress must vote for or against the deal as a whole; otherwise opponents could add wrecking amendments and force the US to renegotiate the entire agreement.

However, talks have been deadlocked by ongoing divisions between developing nations, Europe and the US.

The EU and US disagree over how far they can go to reduce tariffs on agricultural imports and domestic farm subsidies, a key issue for the world's poorest countries.

Europe, meanwhile, wants substantial reductions in tariffs on manufactured goods and greater priority to be given to freeing up trade in services such as telecommunications, finance and transport.

Mr. Lamy emphasized that "from now on, the process to reach modalities will be continuous, Geneva-based, and focused on texts ? and we should aim at finishing this work in matter of weeks rather than months".