DALIAN (China), July 13: WTO trade ministers were nearly unanimous in their disappointment over ongoing global trade liberalization talks here on Wednesday, expressing concerns the negotiations would collapse.

“We are now at a critical juncture. My overall assessment still is one of grave concern,” WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi said at the end of the two-day Dalian mini-ministerial meeting.

“My realistic assessment for the end of July is that we are not going to meet with the kind of expectations put up since the beginning of the year.

“This is the time that decisions have to be made at the political level ... We need decisive political actions before December.”

Some 32 trade ministers, out of the WTO’s full membership of 148, are taking part in the Dalian talks ahead of a July Geneva meeting next week and a full WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December.

The talks are a part of the four-year old WTO Doha Round which aims to expand free trade in a way that benefits poor nations.

“I was struck by the near unanimity of views that the (talks on trade in) services offered to date were overall disappointing,” said EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

“Nobody should imagine that Hong Kong is going to be a success if everything is left until the last minute. That would be a recipe for disaster.

“The WTO meeting in Dalian failed to live up to the expectations of the recent G-8 meeting, where leaders called for renewed momentum in world trade talks” Australian Deputy Premier Mark Vaile said.

On the other hand, Pakistan and 31 other developing countries agreed on the urgency of making “maximum progress” on the vexed agriculture issues by end of July while expressing their collective resolve that the Doha Development Agenda must be concluded by the end of 2006.

Pakistan that played a major role in working out an acceptable formula, expressed the hope that it would also help to cut down tariff on import of farm products by the developed countries.—-AFP