February 01, 2007	Thursday	Muharram 12, 1428

GENEVA, Jan 31: World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy on Wednesday called for a quick and full resumption of multilateral talks aimed at reaching agreement on the stalled Doha Round.

“My main message has been that we need to restart the multilateral process fully, to reap the benefits of the political engagement that has been shown at the highest levels,” he told an informal meeting of the 150 WTO member countries.

But Lamy did not favour setting explicit deadlines, saying his preferred formula was: “the sooner the better, but making sure we get the substance right.”

All parties at the meeting supported the call, trade sources said.

The comments from the WTO director general came after leading trade ministers agreed on the need for a quick resumption of full talks at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos.

Brazil's trade representative, foreign minister Celso Amorim, said last Saturday that he was upbeat after the meeting of ministers from 23 countries and the EU.

“My sense of the meeting was a positive one. I left with a higher feeling of optimism,” Amorim said.

The Doha Round, launched in the Qatari capital in November 2001, is currently mired in an impasse as Western and developing countries remain split on issues such as agriculture subsidies and market access.

Developing countries are demanding lower tariffs on their agricultural exports to US and European markets while industrialised nations seek greater access to developing and emerging countries for their industrial goods and services.

Developing countries in particular are keen to quickly move to multilateral trade talks in the interests of transparency and inclusiveness, the sources said.

These countries fear that bilateral talks between key players such as the US and EU could lead to a 'fait accompli' where their views are not taken into consideration, the sources added.

Lamy said that political conditions are “more favourable for the conclusion of the (Doha) round than they have been for a long time,” particularly in the wake of last week's World Economic Forum in Davos.

Lamy stressed that progress needed to be made across the board, not just in agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) but also the crucial services sector.—AFP