Lamy says US agricultural proposal adds new momentum for trade talks
17 Oct '05
3 min read
Director-General Pascal Lamy – WTO
Director-General Pascal Lamy, in a statement at the meeting of the WTO Trade Negotiations Committee on 13 October 2005, said that the trade talks have gained “a new momentum” with the agriculture proposal by the United States. He added that “it is essential that the development aspect of agriculture negotiations be kept at the centre stage, as it is for the Round as a whole”.
Chairman's statement:
I would like to welcome delegations to the twenty-first meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee.
I would like to start by recalling the roadmap to Hong Kong we discussed during the previous meeting of the TNC. By mid-October we would need to start approximations for landing, using pilot language, while by mid-November the chairs of the negotiating groups would have to have produced texts for the first version of the draft declaration to be adopted in Hong Kong.
But Hong Kong is only a stop-over before we land in our final destination end of 2006. To get there and starting January 2006 we would need to go from the general formulae to specific commitments. Let me give you an example and briefly run through what will be needed taking the example of Agriculture, once we achieve the successful results in Hong Kong:
- First, and before each country starts drafting its own list of detailed commitments, we need to agree on a format that all countries will follow; this would take us to the end of January
- Second, during around 3 months,each country will draft schedules of commitments on the basis of the formulae agreed in HK
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