Revival of Doha Round
Power brokers to meet in London, Geneva soon
Afp, Geneva
Ministers from four key power brokers in the World Trade Organisation -- Brazil, the European Union, India and the United States -- will meet in the next few days to try to unblock global trade talks, officials said on Friday. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, India's Minister of Commerce Kamal Nath and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, are due to meet in London over the weekend, officials close to the talks said. They will then move on to Geneva on Monday and Tuesday where they are expected to meet WTO Director General Pascal Lamy individually, a trade source said. Lamy has been trying to relaunch the faltering round of negotiations on breaking down barriers to trade in agriculture, services and industrial goods which were launched in the Qatari capital, Doha in 2001. An agreement between the world's two biggest trading powers, the US and EU, and the two leading developing or emerging nations Brazil and India, is widely regarded as crucial to the hopes of brokering a compromise among the WTO's 150 members this year. "There is some sort of a mechanism in place that can deliver a deal. Whether a deal can be achieved remains to be seen," said WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell. EU Commission spokesman Peter Power played down hopes of a breakthrough, adding that the meetings in London would be confidential and held in secret locations. "These meetings are part of a long series of discussions by phone or face-to-face which will continue," Power explained.
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