April 22, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 04, 1428

GENEVA, April 21: WTO member states have decided to intensify talks on lowering customs tariffs despite the absence of agreement between the four key players, the United States, the European Union, India and Brazil, known as the G4.

“The multilateral process can no longer be made to wait for the contribution of smaller groups,” said WTO director general Pascal Lamy.

The 150 member states charged the heads of working committees on agriculture, services and non-agricultural market access to quickly prepare compromise texts without waiting for any breakthrough in G4 talks.

Ministers from the G4 met in New Delhi last week, but failed to reach a deal on agriculture, which has stymied global trade talks since the Doha round was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001.

Within the G4, the US and the European Union have engaged in bitter arguments over trade in agricultural goods, with Brussels demanding more reductions in US farm subsidies and Washington insisting that proposed European tariff cuts do not go far enough.

At the New Delhi meeting, the ministers agreed only to aim for a compromise by mid-June.

—AFP