Whether or not WTO ministers will meet this month to seek a Doha Round breakthrough remain undecided due to persistent differences on certain sensitive issues, trade sources said Tuesday.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy originally suggested a meeting on Dec. 13-15, but now he has postponed that to Dec. 17-19, which, again, is just a possible date, the sources said.
A number of issues are "still open," Lamy told WTO delegations late on Monday.
Therefore a prudent approach is needed "to minimize the risks while enhancing the chances of success," he indicated.
Lamy said consultations in the next few days will focus on three sensitive issues, one of which is SSM (Special Safeguard Mechanism), a system aimed to protect poor farmers from sharp surge of imports.
Because of differences on the SSM issue, a WTO ministerial meeting in July failed to reach so-called modalities on agriculture trade and industrial market access, the two key fields in the seven-year-old Doha Round negotiations.
The two other sensitive issues are cotton in agriculture and "sectorals" (free trade in specific sectors) in non-agricultural market access, Lamy said.
Source:Xinhua
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