WTO issues new draft texts to advance trade negotiations

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: The World Trade Organisation issued revised draft texts aimed at overcoming differences that have blocked an agreement to free up global trade in agricultural and manufactured products.

The new texts, released in Geneva by Crawford Falconer, chairman of the farm negotiating group, and Luzius Wasescha, his counterpart on industrial goods, will serve as the basis for a possible meeting of trade ministers later this week, the WTO said last night in a statement on its website. The documents include tentative agreements that were reached in July before talks broke down.

“With these revised texts we are closer to our goal of clinching modalities in agriculture and industry, a stepping stone toward the conclusion of the Doha Round,” WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said. “We still have a long way to go before the round is concluded and all members are asked to cast their ballot on the final package.”

While political differences remain, approving the modalities -- the key percentages for tariff cuts that would form the basis for any comprehensive deal -- would send a “signal that all WTO members stand united to face the challenges of the current economic crisis,” Lamy said.

Nine days of discussions aimed at reaching political backing and setting modalities collapsed on July 29 after India and the US disagreed over how poor nations could increase duties to protect their economies from surging farm imports. Lamy said on Nov. 29 he may call a ministerial meeting of the group in the second week of December to complete the seven-year Doha round of trade talks. He told reporters then that the time may be “ripe” for a deal after leaders from the Group of 20 set a year-end deadline to complete an agreement.