Delhi breaks Doha ice, Geneva talks on Sept 14

Hope sprung anew on creating a rule-based global trade regime with the two-day informal meeting of 35 trade ministers agreeing to resume discussion on the stalled negotiations in less than two weeks’ time. The chief negotiators and senior officials will resume the talks in Geneva from September 14. HT Correspondent reports.

Hope sprung anew on creating a rule-based global trade regime with the two-day informal meeting of 35 trade ministers agreeing to resume discussion on the stalled negotiations in less than two weeks’ time.

HT Image

The chief negotiators and senior officials will resume the talks in Geneva from September 14.

“We have reached an agreement to intensify negotiations. It has been a breakthrough in this meeting. If I can use this expression, the ‘impasse’ in resuming the negotiations has been broken,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said at the end of the meeting here.

The journey, however, may not be without roadblocks.

Brazil, the coordinator of the G20 alliance of developed and emerging economies, said the developing countries have made concessions and developed countries should not put on the table new demands that could stall negotiations.

“They ( developed countries) pay lip service but make extra demand,” Brazilian External Affairs Minister Celso Amorim.

The talks had collapsed in July last year after an impasse between developing and developed countries over issues concerning agriculture and application of restrictive measures.

Amorin cited the example of insistence on having zero duties on specific sectors like automobile, textiles and chemicals.

.