GENEVA, July 8: A WTO mediator on Tuesday urged countries to bridge “absurdly small gaps” on trade in industrial goods before a ministers’ meeting later this month aimed at hastening the conclusion of a global trade pact.

“There is some success on some issues but too many issues remain unresolved,” said Donald Stephenson, who acts as World Trade Organisation mediator for negotiations on industrial products.

“We have absurdly small gaps still to be bridged and it would be insane to give these gaps to the ministers,” he told member states two weeks before the ministerial meeting.

The 152 WTO member states have failed to reach a consensus on lowering their tariffs despite seven years of negotiations.

In the last version of the draft accord that he had presented in May, Stephenson offered a safety net for emerging countries, allowing them to continue to protect certain products from imports. But Western nations want tariff cuts across all product types.

The US, EU, Japan and Canada asked Tuesday that in each product category, some 20 to 50pc of items be subject to tariff cuts. —AFP