April 11, 2006	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1427

PARIS, April 10: World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy urged the United States, European Union and emerging countries to make efforts to reach a trade agreement before an April 30 deadline, in comments published on Monday.

Mr Lamy told the French business newspaper Les Echos: “The distance between the offers and requirements of the main actors at the WTO, although substantially reduced, remains too wide.”

The leading members of the WTO much reach an agreement before April 30 if they are to conclude negotiations for a new global trade agreement in Doha, Qatar, this year.

“Things won’t be any simpler in one, two or three months,” Mr Lamy said.

“Three major actors in this cycle, the United States, the European Union and the G20 (emerging) countries each has a pebble in its shoe,” he told Les Echos, referring to the three main negotiating groups.

“The first must make an effort on subsidies to agriculture, the second on the level of their duties on produce from agriculture, and the last on the tariffs applied to imported industrial products.”—AFP