Wednesday, August 13, 2008

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy On Tuesday - Aug 13 , 2008

Undaunted by the collapse of the ministers'' meeting in Geneva last month, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy on Tuesday said a global trade deal is possible by the year-end but members, including India and the US, must bridge differences at political level.

"The good news is that there may be still a possibility to move this forward and conclude these negotiations within the time-frame which all the WTO members had agreed since last year, that is end-2008," WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said at a CII meeting.

The talks "flopped" last month after a number of countries, led by the United States and India, failed to agree over operationalisation of "special safeguard mechanism", that would have enabled the developing countries to raise tariffs to protect poor farmers to counter surge in imports.

Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, who was also present, said, "We are at a point where a lot has been accomplished" and the deal is possible.

WTO members, which met in Geneva from July 20-29 failed to reach a consensus on agriculture and industrial goods.

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