WTO's four-year round of free trade negotiations in risk

GENEVA, June 23: World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy warned today that the WTO's four-year round of free trade negotiations risked collapse without a breakthrough soon in key issues.

In an interview with the BBC's Hardtalk before a trade ministers' meeting next week, Lamy said developed states must improve their offer of cuts in agricultural subsidies and tariffs and leading developing countries must be prepared to lower further their duties on industrial goods.

''If a deal on this key triangle of issues is not there soon, there is a risk that this whole round will fail,'' he said.

Ministers from some 50 countries, around one-third of the WTO membership, will attend a meeting in Geneva starting on June 29 to try to reach a draft pact on reform of farm and industrial goods trade.

Diplomats have said that without a deal, the WTO could run out of time to complete the full Doha round, which also includes issues such as services and special trade help for poor countries, by the end of the year.

''We need big political decisions to be taken now,'' Lamy said.

The former European Union trade chief said he still believed a deal was possible, though he did not know if it would be achieved next week. ''I do not think anyone knows. But I believe it is doable. I believe it necessary,'' he said.

The WTO must complete the round, launched in the Qatari capital in late 2001, by the end of the year because special US presidential powers to negotiate trade deals will expire next year and Congress looks unlikely to renew them.

REUTERS