May 14, 2004 Friday 05:17 AM Eastern Time
WTO director-general Supachai Panitchpakdi called on OECD trade ministers to signal their commitment today about reaching agreement on the 'bare bones' of a trade liberalisation deal by July.
"What we need from your meeting today is a strong, unequivocal message of confidence and determination to reach framework agreements by July," Supachai said.
"We also need this message to be followed up by the right sort of action when we all leave Paris," he said.
Supachai welcomed recent signs of progress towards meeting the end-of-year deadline for a final deal on liberalising world trade.
"I detect a clear willingness of delegations to negotiate with each other and to focus on substance and not procedure," he said.
But he cautioned that any optimism should be tempered with a sense of reality.
"We should not be under any illusion about the scale or the urgency of our task," he said.
"The window of opportunity up to July is still open, but I don't think you need to be reminded that it is very narrow and that it is closing rapidly. We have not time to lose," he said.
He said the "coming days and weeks are critical" for the trade round.
Supachai said the shape of a framework package had to emerge by the end of May if WTO countries were to meet the deadline for an overall deal.
On agriculture, he said the structure of a framework on domestic support and export competition was "reasonably advanced", although major political decisions still had to be made.
He called for "much more progress" on market access, urging ministers to "spare no effort to break this logjam".
He said he was optimistic of compromise on the so-called 'Singapore issues' -- investment, competition, government procurement and easing conditions for trade -- "provided recent signs of flexibility".
He said the EU's offer to treat the issues separately would prove useful.AFX European Focus:
