The WTO on Saturday published revised texts intended to form the basis of negotiations if a ministerial meeting is held in Geneva next week.
WTO’s Director-General Pascal Lamy had earlier asked member states to prepare ministers for a meeting in the middle of this month to try to conclude the long-stalled Doha global free-trade pact.
In a fax to all 153 member states of the trade bloc, Lamy said that if a ministerial meeting was called, it would begin some time between Saturday and next Monday.
With the publication of the new drafts, Lamy said he would be sampling the reaction of members.
“With these revised texts we are closer to our goal of clinging modalities in agriculture and industry, a stepping stone towards the conclusion of the Doha Round,” he said.
Lamy said differences remained amongst members and that while the “areas of discord are few in number, they involve politically sensitive issues.”
“However, the modalities step would send a signal that all WTO members stand united to face the challenges of the current economic crisis,” he said, urging member states to make “collective moves towards global solutions.”
The Doha round of talks, which started at the end of 2001 in the Qatar capital, aims to boost international commerce by removing trade barriers and subsidies but a deal has so far proved elusive as countries are reluctant to open up their markets or reduce financial support to farmers.
Key sticking points reflected in the revised text include a so-called sectoral initiative, which proposes specific industry sectors to be submitted to sharper tariff cuts than the overall general level of reductions.
Another problem is the special safeguard mechanism which affords developing countries a safety net by allowing them to implement a punitive tariff on certain products in the event that imports surge and threaten domestic producers.
Disagreements primarily between India and the US over this safeguard mechanism tripped up the last round of negotiations between ministers in July.
The latest texts were the fourth version proposed by the WTO trade negotiator on agriculture, Crawford Falconer, and his counterpart on industrial products, Luzius Wasescha, who took over from Don Stephenson.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS