Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 12 • 1st April 2009
US Not Prepared for High-Level Doha Engagement before Fall: US Official
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The United States will not be ready to engage in a high-level meeting on the Doha Round of trade talks at the WTO until this fall at the earliest, a Geneva-based US trade official told Bridges this week.
“We’re still going through the review process,” the official said. “I don’t think many people think it makes sense without having the building blocks in place.”
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy indicated last month that he hoped to make a high-level push for progress in the talks before the global trade body takes its annual August holidays.
”What I hope is that before the summer break there will be a window of opportunity to bring [trade ministers] back,” Lamy said on a visit to Australia.
But Lamy has not set his sights specifically on this summer for reaching an agreement on ‘modalities’, the framework of a global trade deal, a WTO official said yesterday. At this point, it appears as though a ministerial-level gathering is more likely to occur toward the end of 2009, the official indicated.
Many trade observers also say that upcoming Indian elections, which will take place in five phases between 16 April and 13 May, also decrease the odds of a major push on Doha this summer.
ICTSD reporting.
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