WTO’s Lamy: Give Doha negotiators more flexibility
G20 leaders must give their negotiators more flexibility to ensure they can actually reach a global trade deal, the head of the WTO said on Monday.
G20 leaders must give their negotiators more flexibility to ensure they can actually reach a global trade deal, the head of the WTO said on Monday.
Trade ministers meet in New Delhi for talks that the WTO says could lay the groundwork for a push to reach a new global free-trade pact next year.
The Doha round of global trade talks could be concluded within eight months, the head of the WTO said on Tuesday.
Leaders should make early efforts to conclude the Doha round of global trade talks as a key part of fighting the crisis, the head of the WTO said.
World Trade Organisation director general Pascal Lamy urged member nations to show flexibility and narrow their remaining differences on
WTO head Pascal Lamy raised the possibility of a collapse of trade talks between leading nations in Switzerland on Friday.
It is still possible to reach a deal on long-delayed world trade negotiations before the end of the year, the head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said in an interview published on Tuesday. ”There are the political and technical conditions to wrap things up in 2008,” the WTO’s Pascal Lamy told the Les Echos newspaper.
United Nations agencies and the World Bank pledged urgent action on Tuesday to tackle an unprecedented rise in global food prices that is hurting developing countries. The international bodies called on countries not to restrict exports of food to secure supplies at home, warning that could only make the problem worse.
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave a gloomy report on Saturday on prospects for the world economy to a dozen leaders debating how to respond to global financial turmoil. Dominique Strauss-Kahn told a high-powered forum that most of the downside risks to the world economy feared six months ago had now become reality.
Talks on a deal to free up world trade are making progress, developing country leaders said on Monday, but the chairperson of key industry negotiations said more needed to be done to reach an agreement. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the Doha round of trade could end in a deal by the end of the year.
Asia-Pacific leaders tackled security issues, including food safety, on the last day of their summit on Sunday. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum would turn to ”human security” issues at their retreat in Sydney Opera House.