GENEVA -- The World Trade Organization on Monday put off setting a date for a ministerial meeting in Geneva to aim for a breakthrough in the Doha Round of trade liberalization talks, underscoring anew that numerous differences remain in the positions of key trading powers, trade negotiators said.
WTO Director General Pascal Lamy was widely expected to call trade chiefs to the WTO's headquarters from Saturday after holding final discussions with ambassadors in the Swiss city.
But some WTO members expressed reservations about holding the meeting, noting that the risk of failure is great even if trade ministers get together again amid remaining gaps in the core areas of agriculture and industrial goods, the negotiators said.
The meeting has been under consideration since the leaders of the Group of 20 developed and emerging economies about a month ago at the financial summit in Washington called for an outline deal by the end of the year as a way to breathe new life into the ailing global economy.
The WTO's postponement of announcing the schedule is generating speculation that there may not be a ministerial meeting by the year's end for the seven-year-old trade negotiations, despite the leaders' request.
ADVERTISEMENT
In Tokyo, Toshihiro Nikai, Japan's economy, trade and industry minister, told reporters, "It would be premature to judge that there won't be a ministerial meeting (in December)."
"We should not be pessimistic over the slight delay," Nikai said. "I believe Mr. Lamy and the WTO's secretariat made the decision as a way of making progress in the negotiations."
On Tuesday night, Nikai held a telephone conversation with Lamy to exchange views on the latest situation regarding the talks, according to Japanese officials.
Lamy is considering calling a meeting of ministers for Dec. 17 to 19, if discussions in the coming days suggest a brighter outlook for an outline deal, according to the negotiators.
Initially, the WTO chief had hoped to invite trade ministers to Geneva between Saturday and Monday.
During the meeting with about 30 WTO ambassadors, Lamy noted there are three major stumbling blocks to efforts to clinch a deal, according to the negotiators.
They are proposals to scrap tariffs in specific industrial sectors, a mechanism to safeguard farmers in developing countries from a surge in imports and subsidies for U.S. cotton, they said.
A previous ministerial meeting in July collapsed largely because the United States clashed with India and China over the terms of the farm protection mechanism, although a major breakthrough in the long-running talks was in sight at one point.
ADVERTISEMENT
This time, if a ministerial meeting is held in December, many trade negotiators have warned that talks on cuts in industrial sector tariffs have the potential to cause a breakdown.
The postponement was decided after the WTO released on Saturday a set of revised proposals, or so-called negotiating text drafts, on the farm and manufactured good negotiations.
The texts were released to be used as the basis for the next ministerial meeting.
U.S. farm and industrial groups, such as the National Association of Manufacturers that has strong influence on Congress, have criticized the content of the new texts, saying they would lead to fewer business opportunities for the United States.
The WTO chief has become more cautious about going ahead with the planned ministerial meeting on the back of their opposition to the latest texts, some trade negotiators said.
In Japan, mainly farmers are concerned about rushing into a ministerial meeting to unlock the long-running negotiations.
About 3,000 farmers from across the country on Tuesday gathered in the area in Tokyo where many government office buildings are located and staged a protest march against steep farm tariff cuts.
"We can't accept conditions that will cause anxiety and confusion in future farm management," said Mamoru Moteki, who heads the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, the organizer of the rally.
