GENEVA, Dec 12: WTO head Pascal Lamy said on Friday that the economic crisis made it “more pressing” for a global trade deal in 2009 after he scrapped a planned summit next week due to insurmountable differences.

Lamy was addressing a press conference after abandoning plans to summon ministers to thrash out a new trade pact by the year-end, saying there was an “unacceptably high risk of failure” which could hurt the whole commerce system.

“Should financial conditions further deteriorate as most analysts expect, it could even prove to be more difficult (to reach a deal) but the reasons to conclude the Doha Round as soon as possible would be even more pressing next year,” he said.

World leaders have during several high-level forums recently pledged to work towards a conclusion of a trade liberalisation deal under the so-called Doha Round, so as to send a positive political signal of cooperation, as well as fight protectionism.“My view is that next year, the world will be in even more need of reassurance that governments can take the collective responsibility to strengthen the trading system towards a Doha agreement,” said Lamy.

He added, however, that he needed to consult with member states before coming up with any timeline.

The WTO’s so-called Doha Round of talks, which started at the end of 2001 in the Qatari capital, aims to boost international commerce by removing trade barriers and subsidies but has missed countless deadlines as countries resist opening up their markets or reducing financial support to farmers.

Marathon talks in Geneva in July collapsed amid deadlock between the United States and India over a mechanism designed to protect poor farmers against import surges.

The financial crisis provided fresh impetus to move talks forward, but Lamy assessed after consultations with member states that “calling ministers to try to finalise modalities by the end of the year would be running an unacceptably high risk of failure which could damage not only the (Doha) Round but also the WTO system as a whole.”

He pointed to the two revised draft negotiation texts on agriculture and industrial products, which were produced in anticipation of a possible ministerial meeting, and said they brought discussions “closer to the end line of modalities.—AFP