WTO Chief Says Doha Round Negotiations Moving to End Game

With the release of new compromise proposals on agriculture and industrial goods trade, the Doha Round of global negotiations is now closer to its end game, WTO chief Pascal Lamy said on Tuesday.

The new proposals, or negotiating texts, were released respectively by Crawford Falconer, chair of agriculture negotiations, and Don Stephenson, chair of negotiations on NAMA (Non-Agricultural Market Access).

They are the second revisions of negotiating documents first produced in July 2007.

These revised negotiating texts illustrate clearly where convergence lies among the WTO members and where we have more work to do, Lamy said in a statement.

He said the WTO's 152 members will very soon intensify their negotiations on the two important sectors.

They will also consider other key areas and seek to find the balance that will deliver for us all an ambitious and development- oriented round, he said.

Source: CRIEnglish