G8 calls for WTO breakthrough within a month

St Petersburg (Russia), Jul 16: Group of Eight leaders will mandate their negotiators to break a deadlock in world trade talks within a month, in a step towards securing a long-awaited global trade accord.

''There was an agreement on the deadline we gave to our negotiators and no one opposed that,'' European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso today said at a summit of the world's leading industrialised nations.

''It shows that they (the leaders) are aware of the importance of this trade round.'' The text of the G8 agreement called for a concerted effort to conclude the WTO's 5-year-old Doha Development Round.

''We welcome the decision to ask the WTO Director General (Pascal Lamy) to consult members intensively in order to promote early agreement,'' it said.

''(We) call upon him to report to the WTO membership as soon as possible with the aim of facilitating agreement on negotiating modalities on agriculture and industrial tariffs within a month,'' said the text of the G8 statement.

''We call upon all countries to commit to the concerted leadership and action needed to reach a successful conclusion of the Doha round,'' according to the text made available to Reuters.

REUTERS