WTO chief decides not to hold ministerial meeting on Doha Round

GENEVA, Dec. 12 (Chinese media) -- WTO chief Pascal Lamy decided on Friday not to convene a ministerial meeting by the end of the year on the long-stalled Doha Round trade negotiations because the risk of failure is too high.

"Calling ministers to try to finalize modalities by the end of the year would be running an unacceptably high risk of failure which could damage not only the (Doha) Round but also the WTO system as a whole," Lamy told a meeting of WTO ambassadors.

Despite intensive discussions with key WTO members in the past week, wide gaps remain on certain politically sensitive issues which are crucial for reaching modalities on agriculture and NAMA (Non-Agricultural Market Access), the two key areas of the seven-year-old Doha Round, Lamy indicated.

"The bad news is that individual positions -- and the position overall -- have not changed significantly," he said.

The two most sticky issues that divide the United States and major emerging economies are sectoral tariff elimination for some industrial products and the special safeguard mechanism (SSM) for farm imports.

According to Lamy, on these two issues "there continues to be alack of political will to accommodate the demands from others, or to give comfort to those who cannot accommodate them."

"My sense is that there was no readiness to spend the political capital needed to get to modalities now," Lamy said.

"Given the late time of the year, the political agenda in some parts of the world in the next weeks, and my conclusions from all the hours of consultations I have held, I do not think calling a ministerial meeting next week would be wise," he added.

Lamy had originally suggested a meeting on Dec. 13-15, but later postponed that to Dec. 17-19.

Lamy said, however, he would continue his dialogue with WTO delegations in various formats next week to reflect collectively on the next stages.

The Doha Round has suffered many setbacks since its launch in 2001 with an aim to promote development trough trade opening.

A ministerial meeting in July failed due to sharp differences on the sensitive SSM issue.