Trade round gets new impetus from Davos talks

Davos, Switzerland, 27 January 2007 – World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy announced tonight that the stalled Doha Round trade negotiations have been given a new impetus by talks between ministers from 30 countries at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2007 in Davos.

Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry of India, declared: "Despite the cold outside in Davos, we have been able to defreeze the talks that were frozen."

Both were speaking at a session on trade just a few hours after the ministers had agreed to relaunch negotiations suspended last July because of strong disagreements between developed and developing countries, and between the European Union and the United States, on how far agricultural subsidies and tariffs on industrial goods should be cut.

"Today’s ministerial meeting has put quite a lot of energy into the notion that the landing zone is in sight," said Lamy. He added that he will return to Geneva to oversee fresh Round discussions at negotiator level and call ministers together again when enough progress has been made. But he will only do that if and when the right moment has come. "It won’t be tomorrow," he said.

"I remain of the view that it (the Round) is doable," Lamy declared, while adding a note of caution. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." Developing countries have to be convinced that there is more being offered by the major trade powers than before, he said.

Other ministers at the session agreed that the talks, considered a last-ditch effort to save the Round launched at the end of 2001, had been successful in getting the process moving again after months of hiatus.

"We are now in the endgame. Either way, this is going to end in success or failure in the next two to three months," said Peter Mandelson, Commissioner, Trade, European Commission, Brussels. "It would be a terrible misjudgement if we allow what we have now to slip away."

What has to be done in the coming weeks, said Susan Schwab, US Trade Representative, is to achieve a breakthrough that can help convince Congress as well as US farmers and other economic actors that there is enough in an overall Round package for them. "It has to be more than a lowest-common- denominator deal that doesn’t generate trade flows," she insisted.

Celso Amorim, Minister of Foreign Relations of Brazil said he is ready to carry on talking immediately to get details of a final accord. "If Pascal (Lamy) wants to lock us in a room and leave us until we have the numbers, I am ready to do that today or tomorrow," he said.

Akira Amari, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, commented: "If other people are ready to show their cards, we are ready to show our cards too."

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