The difficult Doha round of global trade talks had entered an “end game” stage, negotiators said today, after Pascal Lamy, the head of the World Trade Organisation, and ministers from 19 countries agreed on a revamped timetable.
Following three hours of intensive talks, leading figures from the major trading blocs suggested on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos that a deal could be reached in coming weeks.
M Lamy said the timeline was designed to set intermediate targets, laying down what negotiators must achieve in the detailed technical talks due over the coming weeks.
The Doha round of WTO talks have been blighted by bouts of acrimony between the United States, European Union and developing nations such as Brazil and India. Several deadlines have already been missed during the talk’s four-year duration.
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However, there were suggestions of more cordial relations today. Peter Mandelson, the EU Trade Commissioner, said after today’s meeting: “I did feel encouraged by what I heard around the table ... The commitment and flexibility shown by ministers to getting offers on industrial goods and services was encouraging.”
Rob Portman, the US Trade Representative, said: “There was consensus...about the need to move together as opposed to members of the WTO needing to wait for other parties to move first.”
Davos marks the first gathering of senior trade figures since the WTO’s full ministerial conference in Hong Kong last month.
M Lamy said about 40 per cent of a landmark deal on breaking down barriers to commerce remained to be secured and that this had to happen by the agreed deadline of the end of the year.
He said: “There was a shared but sober realisation of what needs to be done … Nobody has questioned this deadline ... They all know they have to move.”
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However, still remaining to be finalised are some of the most contentious issues, such as opening up markets for farm trade, as well as industrial goods and services.
Joseph Deiss, the Swiss economics minister who chaired the informal Davos meeting, said: “We are entering the end game period, but we will be successful.”
The next key meetings are due in April and July. Full details were not made available because the rest of the WTO’s 149 members are yet to examine the plans.
The most important issue at stake pits wealthy nations, such as the US and members of the EU, against the G20 group of poor countries.
The developing countries want the US and EU to dismantle agricultural import barriers, while industrialised nations are demanding that the G20 and others open up industrial markets and services.
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An EU offer for tariff cuts on farm trade is regarded as insufficient, a similar one from the United States has been questioned, and each side is pressing the other to make the next move.