/ 23 July 2008

‘Modest’ progress made in WTO talks

World Trade Organisation (WTO) director general Pascal Lamy said on Wednesday that only “modest” progress had been made in the past two days of crucial trade talks aimed at concluding a global trade accord.

“Progress has been modest until now,” Lamy told a meeting of the WTO’s 153 member states, his spokesperson Keith Rockwell told reporters.

Lamy had called for a meeting of ministers from 35 key nations this week in a bid to nail down a global trade accord that has been elusive for the past seven years.

As negotiations have been slow-moving, the process has been delayed.

A meeting on services that was meant to have taken place Thursday has now been moved to Friday, said Rockwell. –AFP