Lamy sees better prospects for WTO talks: FT

London, Jan 10: WTO chief Pascal Lamy said prospects for theWorld Trade Organisation's Doha round of negotiations looked betterthan last year, the Financial Times reported today.

''The signs we are seeing now are qualitatively different fromwhat we heard last year,'' Lamy told the newspaper. ''The politicalchemistry is beginning to work.'' World trade talks were suspended inJuly 2006 and have only recently restarted at the technical level.

Lamy's comments came as the European Commission said the topnegotiators of Europe and the United States were likely to meet againsoon to discuss the trade talks.

European trade chief Peter Mandelson and U.S. counterpart SusanSchwab met in Washington on Monday and said afterwards that someprogress had been made.

Time is running short for the round, which was launched in 2001 in a bid to ease poverty and boost the global economy.

The EU and other WTO countries are pushing the United States to gofurther with cuts to farm subsidies. Washington has said it wants theEU and some big developing countries to improve on their offers forcutting tariffs on agricultural imports.

Reuters >