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World trade negotiators
need to bounce
back quickly from a failed meeting in July to have any chance of
reaching a deal by the end of the year, the WTO head has said.
After meeting US Trade
Representative
Susan Schwab and several US industry groups, referring to India and
the US, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said, "The good news is
that they want to re-engage."
"It became a huge issue
because of
the politics on both sides ... I wouldn't say if we solve the SSM,
the rest will fall in place. But what I'm pretty certain is if we
don't solve this, the rest will not fall into place," Lamy said.
Schwab said she urged Lamy
to quickly
convene a meeting of senior officials from key WTO members to try to
resolve that and other outstanding issues, as well as lock in the
substantial progress made in other areas last month.
Some WTO members suspect
the real
reason talks collapsed last month was because the US did not want to
deal with developing country demands for deeper and faster cuts in US
cotton subsidies than for other commodities.
"I know there are a lots of
conspiracy theories running on this ... To be frank, I don't suspect
the US broke on the SSM not to have cotton on the table. They know
cotton has to be there" as part of the deal, Lamy said. (Source:
Reuters)
August 25, 2008
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