LAMY CONCERNED FOR DOHA PROGRESS

Washington, March 16- The World Trade Organisation's director general has once again stressed that progress on the Doha Round is too slow, and warned that targets are unlikely to be met, which will in turn damage negotiations.

Pascal Lamy has been particularly vocal in recent weeks on the need to step up the speed and intensity with which Doha Round negotiations are carried out. In late February, he stated that "a major acceleration -multilaterally, plurilaterally and bilaterally- is needed", with the window of opportunity narrowing daily. Now, following the latest informal meeting of the WTO's Trade Negotiation Committee (TNC), Lamy has reiterated the need for urgency, arguing that although some give and take is present in discussion, it is too timid and too slow to meet the target of new or revised texts by April 21. These texts, Lamy says, are required if negotiations are to continue on an equal footing, and move to a conclusion. He has asked for more substantive inputs from negotiators, and pressed the "need to see delegations move from extreme positions towards the middle ground, with compromise proposals starting to emerge. We also need bilateral and plurilateral work, which is mostly related to market access issues, to move forward faster".

The TNC, chaired by Lamy, oversees the detailed talks of the Doha Round, with the intention of the negotiation to produce new or revised draft texts in a range of subjects before the Easter recess, to agree on these and some other legal drafts by June/July, and conclude the round by the end of the year. The Doha Round aims to effect a change in worldwide trade barriers by seeking to cut trade-distorting agriculture subsidies, phase out tariffs on industrial goods, open trade in services, facilitate customs operations, open trade in clean technology, adjust anti-dumping rules, and offer duty free and quota free access to the exports of the world's poorest countries. According to the European Commission, if a successful agreement were in place, it could add USD167bn to global output, and increase exports by USD383bn on an annual basis after the full implementation period in 2026.

Lamy's comments have met with concern, particularly from the smaller negotiating delegations, which have asked for the intensifying schedule to take into account their limited resources and difficulty in covering several subjects at once. There is also a fear that deals struck in smaller groups might be imposed, and upset the balance of what has already been achieved, adjusting the concern given to various priorities.

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