Director-General Pascal Lamy, in his report to the General Council on 20 October 2009, said “it will be difficult to get to 2010 without a serious acceleration of pace.
20 Oct 2009
"We need to see real negotiations emerge, not only informal consultations and discussions, but real exchanges among Members”. He said he would be holding consultations on the key issues with negotiating chairs and meet with senior trade officials during the week.
Report by the Chairman of the Trade Negotiations Committee
Thank you Mr Chairman.
Before I report on the activities of the TNC since we last met in this format, I wish to convey my personal sympathy and that of the membership to the people in Asia and the Pacific affected by recent natural disasters.
Turning now to my report, since I last reported to the General Council in July, work in the Doha Development Round negotiations has been taken up again at the level of the Negotiating Groups following the summer break. You will recall that on 22 September the TNC held an informal meeting to consider the next steps in the DDA [Doha Development Agenda] over the coming months as well as my report to the G20 Leaders' meeting in Pittsburgh in light of developments that had emerged from leaders' meetings in L'Aquila and an informal meeting of ministers in New Delhi.
At the informal TNC meeting, after consultations led by Chairs in the respective negotiations groups and my own consultations, we devised a comprehensive and structured work programme for the next three months, which included participation of senior officials each month (19 to 23 October; 23 to 27 November; and 14 to 16 December).
On that occasion many of you stressed that, as good as the work programme may be, it would not be sufficient to lead to results without the political engagement and hard bargaining that needs to take place among the members. That engagement was needed at all levels, multilaterally, plurilaterally and bilaterally.
My message to G20 leaders in Pittsburgh was that delegations in Geneva had done what had been asked of them — the road had been mapped out, but still needed to be walked. In my intervention, I pointed out to leaders that there was a gap between what they said and where they were on the questions of containing protectionism and concluding the Round. I urged them to seriously address this “gap” problem and give negotiators clear instructions that concluding the Round remained a priority for them, if 2010 was to be doable, which I think it is.
The Statement of the Leaders of the G20 re-affirmed their commitment to seeking a conclusion to the DDA in 2010, consistent with the mandate and based on the progress already achieved, including with regard to modalities. They endorsed the work programme we developed and instructed ministers to take stock of the situation no later than early next year, taking into account the results we would have achieved by then. Leaders pledged to remain engaged and review progress in the negotiations during their next meeting.
Allow me also briefly to update you on my recent contacts with ministers responsible for finance and development during the recent IMF-World Bank annual meeting in Istanbul and report to you on the LDCs' [least-developed countries'] trade ministers meeting in Dar-es-Salaam from which I recently returned.
Source:WTO
