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New Delhi, Oct 16: Aiming to build on the momentum generated in the informal meetings between key players in agriculture, including India, EU and the US, last week in Geneva, chairman of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) committee on agriculture Crawford Falconer has proposed to hold a series of open-ended meetings this week with members to build convergence on critical issues.
In a submission to the WTO, the chairman pointed out that a successful ministerial conference in Hong Kong in December will require a considerable amount of work and progress in the very limited amount of time left.
He said that while members seemed ready and willing to negotiate, and some of them have shown that they are prepared to try to bridge differences in positions, a lot remains to be done to achieve modalities that will enable members to prepare their draft schedules.
Commenting on the series of informal meetings between key members in Geneva last week, the chairman said that a significant generation of momentum has been witnessed which has the potential to assist the WTO in getting its work done. “The challenge now is to seize the opportunity presented. The coming week or two will, in my view, be crucial to creating the convergence we now need,” he said.
He said he would hold a series of open-ended informal consultations the entire week to carry forwards the talks. In the previous week’s meeting in Geneva India and the G-20 rejected the US-Australia formula calling for progressivity in the tariff reduction formula.
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