World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy told the General Council Tuesday that he was encouraged by recent discussions among Senior Officials in the Doha Development Agency, but warned that a major acceleration at all levels is needed. He added that the window of opportunity is still there, but it is narrowing every day.
"Activities in Geneva were showing a change of gear and approach in both legs of the negotiating process that is in the Negotiating Groups as well as in the bilateral and plurilateral consultations," Lamy said. "In the Negotiating Groups there is an overall sense of greater engagement and focus, with no single topic being left behind. Work is progressing on developing draft language and textual proposals as well as in removing brackets."
Nevertheless, Lamy believes the pace of multilateral work was not only too slow, but also too short of the kind of substantive progress needed to reach the landing zone within the window of opportunity that leaders have identified. He says ministers have agreed to increase the pressure on their various bilateral and plurilateral negotiations so as to provide the necessary momentum.
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