1. Read the article. Wto chief to ask g-8 leaders for “active support” on trade talks

The Associated Press

Geneva: The world trade Organization hopes that this week’s assessment of global trade negotiations by the world’s most powerful political leaders will produce better results than last year.

Pascal Lamy, the WTO director general, said Wednesday that he would deliver a “strong message” when discussing the negotiations with the leaders at the Group of 8 summit meeting in Heiligendamn, Germany.

The talks, the so-called Doha round, began six years ago with the goal of adding billions of dollars to the global economy and lifting millions of people out of poverty through the lowering of trade barriers. But this round of talks has stumbled repeatedly since it started in the capital of Qatar, largely because of disputes between rich and poor countries over eliminating barriers to agricultural trade.

Lamy told a meeting of WTO ambassadors in Geneva that he would ask G-8 leaders to provide “active support in order to achieve the successful and balanced outcome everyone is seeking.”

“They should look at the big picture, which is the fate of the multilateral trading system,” he said.

The message is similar to the one Lamy delivered last year when the G-8 held its annual gathering in St. Petersburg. At that meeting, the leaders called on Lamy to deliver a deal that would reduce farm subsides and lower tariffs within a month. But a week later, the entire negotiations came to a halt after a series of acrimonious meetings involving top negotiators from the United states, the European Union, Australia, Brazil, India and Japan.

Then as now, the WTO said it was working on a tight deadline. Last year, Lamy urged ministers to quickly agree on the framework of a deal, so that months of technical work could be completed before the expiration of president George Bush’s authority to send trade deals to Congress for a vote without amendments.

That goal was missed. Bush’s “fast track” authority expires June 30 and renewal is not on the congressional agenda. As of July, members Congress will be able to revise any agreement line by line, making it more difficult for the United States to offer WTO concessions.

This week, Lamy will emphasize that results are needed before the end of July if his organization is to have enough time to salvage a deal by December, already three years behind schedule. Failure could set back the whole process until 2010 because subsidy and tariff concessions are generally seen as unlikely in 2008, when U.S. elections will be held, in 2009 when Indian elections scheduled.

“We need their constant attention during the coming weeks,” Lamy said of the G-8 leaders. “The time available to show results is increasingly limited.”

Peter Mandelson, the European Union trade commissioner, made a similar call for G-8 leadership Tuesday as negotiators approached “the deciding moment.”

“Next few weeks will decide whether we can achieve success in the Doha round this year,” Mandelson said.

The first big meeting after the G-8 talks is scheduled to begin June 19, when top negotiators from the EU, Brazil, India, and the United States meet in Postdam, Germany, trade officials said. The Brazilian foreign minister, Celso Amorim, has described the talks as crucial.

International Herald Tribune

Thursday, June 7, 2007