WTO to resume full-fledged talks for conclusion of Doha Round in 2010+

NEW DELHI, Sept. 4 Kyodo -
Ministers from over 30 economies agreed Friday they will fully restart their
negotiations in a bid to conclude the World Trade Organization's stalled Doha
Round talks within next year, setting the next meeting of senior officials for
later this month.
The agreement, which came at the end of a two-day informal ministerial meeting
in New Delhi, supports the earlier pledge by key economies to make every effort
to conclude the Doha Round of global trade liberalization talks, launched in
2001 and originally scheduled to be concluded in 2005.
Chief negotiators and other senior officials of the 153-member WTO will meet in
Geneva in the week beginning Sept. 14 to engage in group discussions on drawing
up work programs for agricultural, industrial and services negotiations, a
Japanese official said in Tokyo.
The results of the upcoming meeting will feed into the deliberations of leaders
from the Group of 20 leading and emerging economies when they meet late
September in Pittsburgh in the United States.
The WTO has failed to see any progress in the Doha negotiations since
ministerial talks collapsed in Geneva in July 2008 amid a dispute between some
advanced and emerging economies.
In July this year, the Group of Eight leading industrial countries and some
emerging economies, including China and India, agreed at a summit in Italy that
the organization should seek to conclude the Doha Round in 2010, confirming the
need for political will to that end.
India's new Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma hosted the meeting in
New Delhi and the participants included U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
Japan was represented by senior government officials instead of the invited
trade and farm ministers, who skipped the meeting citing the upcoming change of
government in Japan following the defeat of Prime Minister Taro Aso's Liberal
Democratic Party in Sunday's general election.
While Sharma hailed what was achieved during the meeting, uncertainty remains
over whether the round will be concluded successfully.
The chair's summary released by him after the two-day session only said that
the international body will verify any progress in the negotiations when
ministers meet in late November. It contained few specifics such as a deadline
for their principle agreement.
Some member countries have come to doubt whether hard political issues can be
solved within the multilateral framework, alluding to a possible recourse to
bilateral negotiations.
The summary also left the matter unclear and did not make detailed reference to
other sticking points, including whether member countries should promote
discussions on the farm and industrial sectors, key themes in the round, rather
than the lower priority areas of the services sector and international trade
rules.
==Kyodo