WASHINGTON, Sept 28: A rising number of trade disputes and a lack of urgency among some negotiators threatens progress in world trade talks, the head of the World Trade Organization warned on Friday.

WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi, on his first visit to Washington since taking office on Sept. 1, also told reporters he was concerned by a key US senator’s accusation that there was bias against the United States at the WTO. But he declined to directly answer the charge.

Supachai is scheduled to meet with Bush administration officials and members of Congress, as well as attend the annual meeting of the World Bank and IMF this weekend.

He told reporters it was critical that negotiators meet several deadlines at the end of this year for the WTO talks to stay on track to conclude by December 2004.

Decisions were required soon in the areas of special and differential treatment for poor countries under WTO rules and access to generic medicines for countries with little or no manufacturing capability, Supachai said.

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told reporters at a separate news conference the United States was committed to trying to resolve the drug licensing issue by year end.

Zoellick also called the WTO negotiations the heart of our (trade) agenda, despite the Bush administration’s ambitious pursuit of a number of regional and bilateral trade deals.

WTO members also must make progress in the coming months on so-called “implementation issues” that stem from many developing countries’ belief that they have not benefited as much from the 1994 Uruguay Round trade agreement as they were promised, particularly in the areas of textiles and agriculture.

Supachai said he was concerned that some negotiating groups were not working hard enough. There are signs we need a sense of urgency put into some of the negotiating bodies, he said, referring to the agricultural talks in particular.

With a March deadline for countries to agree on a basic framework for future farm trade negotiations, key countries remain far apart on many issues, he said.

Supachai said the European Union, under pressure in the talks to eliminate its agricultural export subsidies and scale back its farm programs, still has not fully submitted their positions.

But he said he was confident Brussels would correct that situation so talks could proceed.

Supachai said he was worried that a rising number of trade disputes around the world could sour the environment for the trade talks, officially known as the Doha Development Agenda.

Countries have brought 21 new disputes to the WTO so far in 2002, compared with 27 in all of 2001.

The cases increasingly involve not just big powers like the United States and the EU, but other WTO members as well.

Around the world we’re seeing all kinds of interpretation of our rules in a way that many of them are now being submitted to the dispute settlement body, Supachai said.

On Thursday, US Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, said a number of recent WTO rulings showed a strong bias against the United States.

Although the United States has lost 17 of the 19 challenges other countries have made, it has won 35 of the 38 trade cases it has initiated, a WTO aide said.

A Baucus aide took issue with those figures, saying they included cases solved through negotiations. Of the cases that have actually gone to panels, the record for the US is 20 losses and 18 wins, he said.—Reuters